A Chinese court has sentenced a kindergarten teacher to death for poisoning several children that left one of them dead, in an act of revenge against her colleague, AFP reported. 

The court in he central Chinese province of Henan said that the teacher, Wang Yun, mixed sodium nitrate into the food being prepared for these toddlers, who were the students of her colleague. As a result 25 kids fell sick and one of them died after being ill for several months in January this year. The incident took place in March 2019.

The Jiaozuo City Intermediate People’s Court on Monday said Wang knew sodium nitrite was harmful but went ahead “with no regard for the consequences”, leaving many innocent children in hospital.

News reports last year said the children began vomiting and fainting after eating their breakfast.

Kindergarten students in China are aged between three and six.

The death sentence was handed to Wang this week for the offence of using dangerous substances.

Sodium nitrate is used for curing meats but can be toxic when ingested in high amounts.

Wang concealed her reasons for the poisoning after carrying out the crime and her “motives were despicable”, the court said.

Her “criminal methods and circumstances were exceedingly bad, with especially severe circumstances, and she should be severely punished in accordance with the law,” the sentencing statement said.

The court added that Wang and the manager of the kindergarten must compensate the children’s families.

It was not the first time Wang used sodium nitrite to poison someone, authorities said. In 2017 she put it in her husband’s mug, causing him minor injuries.

In March last year, 36 primary school students in southwest China’s Sichuan province were hospitalised after eating “mouldy food”.