A woman died and nine other people, including two children, were hospitalised on Friday after eating religious offering outside a temple in Chikkaballapura district of Karnataka, PTI reported on Saturday. The police have detained three women in connection with the incident.

The deceased woman has been identified as 22-year-old Kavita. Four of her family members have been hospitalised, the police said.

They added that two unidentified women visited the Gangamma Devi temple in Chintamani town and distributed kesri bhat to the devotees. However, people began to complain of stomach pain on consuming it, and were rushed to hospital.

“The temple management is not involved as nobody had prepared any prasad there,” an unidentified police officer said. “Two women had brought some prasad and were distributing it.” The police said they are trying to trace the women.

In December, at least 16 people died and 100 were hospitalised after consuming the religious offering served as the Maramma temple in Sulavadi village in Chamarajanagar district. The police arrested four people, including Pattada Immadi Mahadevaswamy, a seer at the Mahadeshwara Hill Saluru Mutt.