PESHAWAR: More than 200 children were rushed to different hospitals in the provincial capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa after they received anti-polio drops on Monday.

The incident took place soon after the extended vaccination drive for children between the ages of five and 10 years kicked off in the province, making many recipients of the drops complain of dizziness, vomiting and severe stomach ache.

Some of the children also fell unconscious and were taken to local hospitals.

The angry parents of the children, along with other furious protesters, took to the streets raiding a government Basic Health Unit (BHU) and setting its building ablaze causing significant loss to the medical facility.

“We were able to disperse angry crowds at three different locations without any damage to any building or property. However, the protesters managed to set a BHU on fire before the police could arrive at the scene,” Senior Superintendent Police (SSP) Zahoor Babar Afridi said, adding that the first priority of the police was the safe extraction of polio vaccinators from the area.

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s health minister, Hisham Inamullah Khan, visited the Hayatabad Medical Complex and inquired about the well-being of children.

Talking to the media, he said he had ordered to stop using the batch of vaccine that was administered to children on Monday. He also added that the government was launching a transparent inquiry into the incident to figure out what had happened to these children.

“During the current campaign, 1.6 million children will be administered polio drops,” he continued. “The area where complaints first emerged has refused polio vaccination for a long time.”