What started as a merry celebration of the Spring Festival or the Lunar New Year turned tragic for a family in Liujiagou Village of Suide County, Shaanxi Province.

Three sisters died after eating steamed buns prepared by their grandmother on the first day of the Spring Festival last Thursday, the police said on Monday.

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The grandmother, who has been preparing delicious steamed buns for the entire family every Spring Festival, mistook borax for alkali powder.

The grandmother mixed the borax, a toxic pesticide used in detergents, cosmetics and insecticide, with the ingredients in making steamed buns.

"Maybe she was too excited that the family was celebrating the Lunar New Year that she accidentally poured Borax into the ingredients when making steamed buns," one source told a local media.

The three girls, aged 6 to 13, died despite efforts by doctors to treat them.

Their father and eight-year-old brother were also poisoned but survived the incident.

It was not known if the grandmother has been charged for negligence.

Borax resembles alkali powder, which is also white. Borax is used as a food additive in some countries but has long been banned by China.

Sufficient exposure to borax dust can cause respiratory and skin irritation. Ingestion may cause gastrointestinal distress including nausea, persistent vomiting, abdominal pain, and diarrhea.

Effects on the vascular system and brain include headaches and lethargy, but are less frequent.

In severe poisonings, a beefy red skin rash affecting palms, soles, buttocks and scrotum has been described.

Meanwhile, four people were killed and several others injured after a coach overturned in Qinzhou City in south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region on Sunday morning, local authorities said.

The accident happened around 9 a.m. when a coach, which plies the Xiniujiao township-Beihai City route, overturned in heavy rain at the Pingshandong Village section of the road.

Four people died at the scene. 

TagsSpring Festival Tragedy, Steamed Buns Poisoning