TACLOBAN CITY, Philippines?At least 34 persons from two coastal villages of a town in Eastern Samar fell ill after eating brown mussels.

Dr. Maria Socorro Campo, Salcedo municipal health officer, said the victims experienced vomiting, weakness, numbness and headaches after they ate brown mussels locally known as ?bagulan? gathered from Matarinao Bay.

Twelve of the victims were residents of Barangay Abejao, while the rest lived in Barangay Naparaan. The two villages were along Matarinao Bay where the victims gathered the brown mussels.

Of the 34 victims, several of them children, only four were admitted to the Felipe Abrigo Memorial Hospital located in Guiuan town, also in Eastern Samar, Campo said.

The victims exhibited symptoms similar to that of red tide food poisoning but they have yet to establish the cause of the victims? illness, Campo said.

All of the victims suffered paralytic food poisoning.