By Sarah Hooper

Copyright metro

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Thousands of schoolchildren have fallen ill with food poisoning after eating dodgy lunches.

The outbreak in West Java, Indonesia, is the latest in a series after the president launched a free meals programme.

A sports hall has been transformed into an emergency treatment centre, with dozens of patients in makeshift beds for treatment.

The outbreak began on Monday in a small village 90 miles north of the capital city Jakarta.

Hundreds of other patients were also referred to nearby local hospitals, including a state-owned hospital, which saw more than 100 patients flock to the emergency room on Wednesday night.

Before this week’s incident, at least 6,452 children nationwide had suffered from food poisoning from the programme since it was launched in January.

The outbreak is linked to the president’s free meals programme (Picture: AFP)

Questions have been raised about standards and oversight of the scheme, which has expanded rapidly to reach over 20 million recipients, with an ambitious goal of feeding 83 million by year-end.

In April, one hundred children became seriously ill after eating a school lunch containing a dead snake.

The reptile was discovered and removed from the meal by the school cook, yet still dished up to over 500 children in Mokama, northern India.

Scores of the kids then began vomiting and feeling dizzy, with over two dozen being admitted to a local hospital for treatment.

The lunchtime scare, which took place on April 24, triggered mass protests in the area against the school authorities.

Parents barricaded a local road in protest before government authorities stepped in to demand an investigation.

The country’s National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) began investigating the incident at the government school.

‘The commission has observed that the contents, if true, raise a serious issue of violation of the human rights of the students,’ the Commission said.

The police now have two weeks to report back to the NHRC with a detailed account of what happened.

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