RIYADH, Saudi Arabia (AP) -- Saudi Arabia's Foreign Ministry has summoned Iran's envoy to the kingdom to express deep concern over the deaths by poisoning of four Saudi children in the northeastern Iranian city of Mashhad.


Iran's official IRNA news agency says the victims were all accidentally over-exposed to poison commonly used to kill insects and rats. Twenty-eight other Saudi pilgrims visiting a major Shiite shrine in Mashhad have been hospitalized.

The official Saudi Press Agency reported on Tuesday that the kingdom's Foreign Ministry summoned Iran's envoy, Hussein Sadqi, to urge an investigation into the circumstances surrounding the deaths.

Iranian authorities have arrested five people over the incident. They say it was a result of insect spraying in the victims' hotel, though the judiciary says so far there's no evidence to suggest the incident was a deliberate act.

By The Associated Press