Eighteen of 42 ill children sent to hospitals for treatment on Tuesday afternoon after eating in a kindergarten in Weinan city, Shaanxi province, were diagnosed with acute gastroenteritis, city authorities said on Wednesday.

Wang Peng, an official with the Weinan city education bureau's safety schooling office, said that many children in a private kindergarten in the city's Hongxing village felt uncomfortable on Tuesday afternoon and then all 70 children in the kindergarten were sent to hospitals, with 42 of them suffering from vomiting and stomachaches.

"They all went back home at about 2 am on Wednesday after proper treatment," Wang said.

Guo Yali, director of the food and drug administration bureau in charge of the village, said that they had sent the remaining food for testing.

Huashang Daily reported on Wednesday that one mother took her 5-year-old son to a local hospital because he was vomiting and continuously crying.

"I found many of the children in the same kindergarten with my son were also sent to the hospital, and they had the same symptoms," the mother was quoted as saying by the newspaper.

Parents said that the children had lunch in the kindergarten and felt uncomfortable afterward.

Contact the writer at malie@chinadaily.com.cn.