Raipur, Nov 14 (IANS) At least 20 students, including nine girls, started vomiting and were taken to hospital after eating food provided under mid-day meal scheme in a Chhattisgarh primary school, a health department official said here Saturday.

The doctors termed the condition of the students as serious.

The students, all below 10, were enrolled at Primary Girls and Boys School at Dhamtari, some 80 km from here. They began vomiting and fell unconscious soon after lunch.

'The children probably consumed stale food. They have been kept under observation and we are monitoring their condition minute by minute,' C.L. Sahu, one of doctors treating the students, told IANS by phone.

As the news broke, panicked parents thronged the hospital and raised slogans against local authorities for giving poor quality food to students.

Dhamtari Collector R.P.S. Tyagi and Superintendent of Police Sheikh Arif Hussein reached the hospital late Saturday and tried to pacify the angry parents.