Afghan police are questioning two school caretakers after more than 170 women and girls were hospitalized with suspected poisoning, according to CNN.

Police took the school employees into custody in the town of Rostaq, the news outlet quotes district administrator Moelam Hussein as saying.

Local health officials blamed the act on extremists opposed to women’s education, several media sources reported.

A total of 171 women and girls were hospitalized Tuesday, and four remained semiconscious in the hospital Wednesday, Dr. Hafizullah Safi told CNN.

Some 25 women and girls returned to the hospital Wednesday morning, complaining of more stomach pains, fever and vomiting. They were given medication and released, said Safi, the provincial health department director.

A sample of the water from the school was taken and sent to Kabul for testing, but it will take several days for the results.

The victims range in age from 14 to 30 and were taken to a hospital in Afghanistan’s northeastern Takhar province after their school’s water tank was contaminated, according to Safi.

No deaths were reported, but more than half the victims partially lost consciousness, while others suffered dizziness and vomiting.

“Looking at the health condition of these girls, I can definitely say that their water was contaminated by some sort of poison,” Safi told CNN. “But we don’t know yet what was the water exactly contaminated with.”

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