DHAKA: Tablets linked to the deaths of more than a dozen women who visited a sterilisation camp in eastern India are likely to have contained a chemical compound commonly used in rat poison.

A senior official in Chhattisgarh state said on Saturday, reports The Straits Times.

Preliminary tests of the antibiotic ciprocin tablets were found to contain zinc phosphide, Siddhartha Pardeshi, the chief administrator for the Bilaspur district told the media.

The antibiotics were handed out at the mass sterilisation held a week ago in the impoverished state. At least 15 women have died, most of whom had attended the camp.

Pardeshi said authorities had tested the tablets after being informed that zinc phosphide was found at the nearby factory of Mahawar Pharmaceuticals, a firm at the centre of investigations into the deaths at a government-run family planning camp.

BDST: 1545 HRS, NOV 15, 2014