Homeless people get food poisoning

JAKARTA: Thirty homeless people living under the flyover in Grogol, West Jakarta, fell ill with apparent food poisoning after eating meals donated by a foundation late on Saturday.

They were taken to the emergency room of the nearby Sumber Waras Hospital and Tarakan Hospital at about 8 p.m. with diarrhea and vomiting.

Six of the people, including two children, stayed overnight at Sumber Waras Hospital, and two were treated overnight at Tarakan Hospital.

"The Bina Mandiri Foundation regularly donates meals twice a week to the homeless people. Unfortunately, the meals or the milk they distributed (on Saturday night) might have been stale," Tanjung Duren Police's chief of detectives, First. Insp. Sutarlan, said on Sunday.

He said police had questioned seven people who distributed the meals, as well as the cook.

Sutarlan said the foundation had paid all of the medical cost for the people, adding that the police would not file charges against the foundation. --JP