Nanjing poisoner executed

Hundreds collapsed after eating the poisoned snacks

A shopkeeper in eastern China who confessed to spiking a rival trader's food with rat poison, killing at least 42 people, has been executed.

More than 300 customers fell ill after eating poisoned bread, cakes and rice balls at a fast food shop in Tangshan town in the city of Nanjing a month ago.

Chen's own snack shop was not as successful as his competitor, according to state media, so he used powerful rat poison to lace the food at his competitor's store.

Chen was put to death after the Higher People's Court of Jiangsu province upheld a previous death sentence meted out late last month, the China News Service reported.

"The facts are clear, the evidence is reliable and ample, and the punishment is suitable," the court said.

State media said on Monday that he had confessed to his crime.

His victims - many of them schoolchildren - died after eating breakfast snacks such as dough sticks and rice balls from the tiny fast-food outlet, a branch of the Heshengyuan Soy Milk chain on Tangshan's main street.

There were appalling scenes at the snack shop as people who ate the food there collapsed in violent convulsions, some bleeding from the eyes and mouth.

Previous poisonings

Mass poisonings are not uncommon in China, and although most are due to negligence, some have been deliberate.

In August 2001, 120 people fell ill in a restaurant in Ningxiang, Hunan Province, after being poisoned by the owners of a noodle factory.

And there have been several cases of poisoning in schools in recent years.

Last January, also in Hunan, 92 primary schoolchildren fell ill after their lunch was poisoned.