Man held over 38 poison deaths

CHINESE police have arrested a man suspected of putting rat poison in food that state media say killed 38 people.

He was caught on train 370 miles from Nanjing where the poisoning took place.

The poisonings, traced to a snackbar, sickened as many as 300 people.

The suspect, Chen Zhengping, deliberately spread the poison “out of resentment over a business dispute,” said state TV.

A Hong Kong newspaper said Chen was the cousin of the snackbar owner and ran a rival shop. He poisoned the food out of jealousy at his relative’s success, the report said.

Most of the victims were schoolchildren and two were soldiers from a nearby military installation.

The report said some 300 people were hospitalised.

A spokeswoman for the Nanjing city government refused to confirm whether anyone had been had arrested or release any information on the investigation. Nanjing police refused to comment.

Sources said Chen ran a competing shop and was angry that his business was not as successful as his cousin’s.

The Nanjing city spokeswoman refused to confirm that account. Other city departments referred questions to the propaganda office of Jiangsu province, where Nanjing is located. It refused to release information.

China has suffered poisoning attacks in the past blamed on business rivals or people with grudges.

In July, a noodle shop owner was arrested on charges that he poisoned customers at a rival business by putting rat poison in its soup.