Agency

Eight people died in Narsingdi and Kishoreganj Wednesday after eating puffer fish, locally known as potka fish, doctors said. Six people died in Belab upazila of Narsingdi, where 32 others, including a fishmonger, had also been affected.

The dead are Monir Hossain Khandaker, 60, his wife Hajera Begum, 50, and son Shahadullah, 30, of Amlab village, Keramat Ali, 35, and his daughter-in-law Afroza, 22, of Bateshwar village and Ayesha Begum, 45, of Char Kashimnagar village.

Dr Md Mosaddek, health officer of Belab upazila, said that 38 people had been affected in the upazila and six of them died at home. Thirty-two people were admitted to the Upazila Health Complex with poisoning from the deadly fish.

Five of them were shifted to Dhaka Medical College Hospital for better treatment. Amlab Union Parishad chairman Mahbubur Rahman Ratan said some crows, cats and dogs died after eating skin of puffer fish. In Kishoreganj, Birendra Das, 40, of Kuliar Char and his daughter Trisha, 6, died after eating the poisonous fish.

Birendra's mother Nanda Rani, who also ate fish, was in critical condition. Sub-inspector Kawsar Ali Mia of Kuliar Char Police Station said Birendra had bought puffer fish from Kuliarchar wholesale fish market. After eating fish, all in the family fell sick. Birendra and Trisha died in Jahirul Islam Medical College Hospital.

Almost all puffer fish contain tetrodotoxin, a substance deadly to humans and up to 1,200 times more poisonous than cyanide, according to the website of National Geographic Society. There is enough toxin in one puffer fish to kill 30 adult humans, and there is no known antidote, it says.