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BANGKOK - MORE than 140 people have been rushed to hospital in northern Thailand after snacking on fish balls thought to be made from the highly poisonous puffer fish, local media reported on Sunday.
Villagers in Nan province were given a soup containing the fish balls at a funeral, the Bangkok Post newspaper reported, and soon began vomiting, complaining of numbness in the tongue and shortness of breath.
After being rushed to hospital, doctors deduced that the funeral-goers had symptoms in line with puffer fish poisoning, which can be deadly, the English-language daily said. They are being kept in hospital under observation.
The fish balls were bought at a local market, the paper said, adding that meat from the toxic fish is sometimes used illegally because it is cheap.
Puffer fish is valued as a delicacy known as fugu in Japan, where chefs are specially trained to prepare it so it does not endanger diners.
The fish contains a poison known as tetrodotoxin, a neurotoxin which paralyses a person's muscles and for which there is no antidote. -- AFP
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