NEW DELHI: A day after more than 20 schoolchildren died after eating a contaminated mid-day meal in Bihar’s Chapra district, Delhi had its own scare when 21 kids had to be rushed to hospitals across the city after they were given iron and folic acid tablets during a government drive against anaemia .

The children, aged 9 to 17, had severe stomach ache, nausea and vomiting on Wednesday — symptoms the health department later claimed were a common side-effect found in 1% of cases. Around 18 lakh pills were administered, the government said. Sources in the health department said around 200 students took ill across the city but most of them did not need hospitalization.

However, the police have registered a case of “act endangering lives” at the Bharat Nagar police station and are probing to establish culpability. DCP northwest P Karunakaran said, “A case under section 337 has been registered and we are investigating the matter.” The staff at the local school will be questioned and the medicines have been sealed, police said.

“Eight children were rushed to Sunder Lal Jain hospital , seven to Guru Tegh Bahadur, two each to Jag Pravesh Chander and Hindu Rao hospitals and one each to Hedgewar Arogya Sansthan and B R Ambedkar hospitals,” said a senior official.

“The children were brought to our hospital at around 9.30pm with complains of severe abdominal pain and vomiting. We administered intra-venous fluid to them and gave medicines to reduce the pain and stop vomiting. In some cases, stomachs had to be cleared through pumping,” said Dr Atish Sinha, the deputy medical superintendent at Sunder Lal Jain hospital.

He added that all children were discharged after five to six hours. Sinha, however, refused to comment on whether the health complication was caused due to side-effect of the iron tablet or due to poor quality. The eight children admitted at SLJ hospital were aged 11 to 17. They all lived in JJ colony, Wazirpur.

“The children had the pills around 10.30am. Nothing happened in the first few hours but around 1.30pm some of them complained of dizziness. By 3pm half-a-dozen children had similar complications and by 6pm, the parents informed police and the children were rushed to the nearby hospitals,” said one of the parents.

Most of the students who took ill were from Sarvodaya Kanya Vidyalayas in J J Colony Wazirpur and H block, Ashok Vihar. Parents staged protests at the schools on Thursday morning and demanded a probe into the incident.

A statement from the office of state health minister A K Walia said the pills were given under a central scheme launched on Monday. “Delhi government is following the guidelines laid down by the Union health ministry and the drugs are formulated as per government of India’s specification which is in use countrywide. The drug provided under the programme were manufactured in June 2013 with expiry date in May 2015 and the drugs have been pre-tested at a government-approved laboratory,” it added.

About 56% of Indian girls and 30% of boys suffer from anaemia, primarily a deficiency of essential micronutrients because of poor nutrition. As part of the government programme, around 100mg of elemental iron and 500mg of folic acid would be given to boys and girls. They would also be screened for anaemia.