Nearly 400 workers in Vietnam's Ho Chi Minh City were hospitalized on Tuesday night due to food poisoning, according to local media reports on Wednesday.

After having dried pork and vegetable soup for dinner, the workers of the Kyungrhim Vina company showed symptoms of stomachache, vomiting and diarrhoea.

Health authorities and police are investigating the case.

Vietnam has reported 609 food poisoning sufferers, including 35 deaths in the first half of this year.

It recorded 133 food poisoning cases with 4,990 sufferers, including 30 fatalities in 2003, down 37.6 percent in the number of cases but up 10.9 percent in the number of victims and 55.9 percent in fatalities from those of 2002.

Source: Xinhua