Two people have died and another 13 were hospitalised with food poisoning after they caught and consumed poisonous blowfish in Kampong Chhnang’s Cholkiri district last Friday.

The group – which included three children between five and seven years of age and a 17-year-old teenager – had caught about five kilograms worth of blowfish in a creek, which they had cooked to eat with wine, said Prak Run, director of the province’s health department.

“They were poisoned by a kind of blowfish with red eyes. These fish cannot be cooked for food,” said Run. The group was rushed to hospital after they started vomiting, but for the two who died, it was already too late, said village police chief Long Sophal, adding that the other 13 have been discharged.