Siliguri, Aug. 10: Three children died from suspected poisoning at the Naxalbari Tea Estate this evening.

Two teenaged girls — one of them was taking care of the children after they fell ill —also taken ill and are under treatment at Naxalbari Block Hospital and North Bengal Medical College Hospital.

Sources said the deceased were Hiralal, 6, his sister Karishma, 4, and Manjoy Goala, 4. Hiralal and Karishma were the children of Suresh Goala and Basanti, while Manjoy was the son of Fulkumari. The families are neighbours in the garden, 3km from here.

“The children had their lunch as usual and were fine till afternoon. Then they went to a stream flowing through the garden and returned with illness,” said Partha Nandi, the garden manager. “We rushed them to hospital but they could not survive.”

While the siblings died on way to Naxalbari Block Hospital, Manjoy breathed his last while being taken to the medical college.

The cause of illness and death, however, is yet to be known. Subir Bhowmik, the chief medical officer of health of Darjeeling district, said the three might have died because of poisoning. “It seems to be a case of suspected poisoning but something concrete can be said only after post-mortems are conducted,” he said. “On our part, we are sending a medical team to the garden tomorrow morning to ensure that other children in the area do not fall ill.”