Balasore, Nov. 9: Four children died under mysterious circumstances in Jashipur block of Mayurbhanj district in two separate incidents within eight days.

Subash Karuan, 5, and his sister Rina Karuan, 3, died after taking bread and milk for breakfast.

“The exact cause of their death can only be ascertained following a viscera test,” said district collector Rajesh Prabhakar Patil.

Eight days ago, two children died after allegedly consuming midday meal at an anganwadi centre.

The deceased were Kajal Behera and Siba Behera, both around four years old. All the four children were from Jamada Sahi village in Jashipur.

The administration of the tribal-dominated district has deputed a medical team to the village to probe the deaths.

Patil said: “The two incidents of child death at the same village within a span of two weeks could be a mere coincidence. However, we will shortly carry out a sanitation and health check-up programme in the village.”

Enraged Jamada Sahi villagers blocked the NH-5 and NH-60 yesterday in protest against the alleged mismanagement of the district administration that led to the deaths.

The villagers said that Kajal and Siba had complained of sickness immediately after returning from the anganwadi centre where they had their midday meal.

The district administration, however, refuted the allegations, saying that seven children of the same centre had consumed the same food on the same day. But they did not develop any problem.

Sub-collector Madhusudan Mishra said: “The additional district medical officer of public health, a paediatric specialist and an epidemic expert visited the village to conduct an inquiry. Though medical reports are yet to be received, the symptoms indicated that Subash and Rina might have died of snakebite.” Chief district medical officer Chandan Kumar Murmu said: “Nothing can be said before we get the autopsy reports.”