Itanagar, Aug 1 (IANS): At least nine children died due to diarrhoea in the remote Lazu area of Arunachal Pradesh's Tirap district, health officials confirmed on Monday.

Tirap District Medical Officer (DMO) Obang Taggu said that the children who died were aged between 3-10 years while many others have fallen ill in the past one week following the outbreak of diarrhoea.

Claiming that the situation is under control, the health officials said that the deaths might be due to consumption of contaminated water and open defecation in forests, bushes and nearby water bodies in the hilly area.

He said that the stool from the affected children and water samples have been sent for laboratory testing at the district headquarters, Khonsa and Dibrugarh in Assam.

According to the DMO, the villagers being superstitious, claimed that some evil spirit has entered their village and spread the disease.

"The villagers are not cooperating when the medical team went to the village," he said, adding that the situation is being constantly monitored by local MLA W Sawin and the district administration.

An ambulance will be sent to the village to ferry serious patients from Pongkong, Longliang and nearby areas to the district hospital, Taggu added.