Baripada, Dec. 1: Inmates at the Bada Sahi Middle English School’s hostel in Mayurbhanj district, fell ill allegedly after drinking water supplied from the hostel’s overhead tank.

Eighty-nine of the 110 hostel inmates were admitted to the district headquarters hospital at Baripada after being treated at Bada Sahi community health centre.

All of them are out of danger except one girl whose condition is serious, said hospital sources.

After drinking the water, 15 students started throwing up and complained of giddiness. They told the headmistress that they had smelt phenyl in the water. Soon after that other students were taken ill.

Mayurbhanj chief district medical officer Chandan Kumar Murmu said: “Eighty-nine students were admitted to the district headquarters hospital. All of them have recovered except one.”

Sub-divisional police officer Dhiren Chandra Nanda said: “The school authorities said someone out of the inmates had mixed phenyl in the water. However, before we could test it, the water was drained out of the tank on the headmistress’s instruction. Therefore, we could not be sure what went wrong.”

Headmistress Sureshi Panda said: “Some students fell sick after drinking the hostel water while others smelt phenyl in it. I suspect that it is a handiwork of some of our inmates. An inquiry is being conducted into the incident.”

Local people, however, said the incident could have occurred due to food poisoning as the students consumed watered rice and spinach.