The Cherkasy police department has opened criminal proceedings into the mass poisoning of children in the Cherkasy school.

"Information has been entered into the Unified Register of Pretrial Investigations and a pretrial investigation in criminal proceedings on the grounds of a criminal offense under Part 1 of Article 325 (violation of sanitary rules and norms for the prevention of infectious diseases and mass poisonings) of the Criminal Code of Ukraine," the press service of the General Prosecutor's Office of Ukraine said on Thursday.

The pretrial investigation was entrusted to the investigative department of the Main Directorate of the National Police in Cherkasy region, the procedural management is carried out by the Cherkasy region prosecutor's office, which employees are entrusted to determine the actual circumstances of the incident and to find out the causes of the deterioration of the children's state of health.

As it was reported, on May 8 at about 9:00 in the territory of the Cherkasy school No. 8, during the celebratory assembly devoted to the Day of Memory and Reconciliation, the schoolchildren had a bad state of health and began to lose consciousness.

The police carried out the evacuation of people and restricted access to the territory of this school.

Some 53 children and four teachers were hospitalized to the Cherkasy regional children's hospital with a preliminary diagnosis - poisoning with an unknown substance. Some 11 children were placed in the intensive care unit.

On May 9, the condition of children resuscitated improved, and they were all transferred to an in-patient hospital.