A shopkeeper who stocked aloe vera juice bottles possibly containing a powerful drug said he was sent them by mistake.

Police are investigating after two women were left seriously ill in hospital after drinking from two apparently contaminated juice bottles.

Health officials and police said the bottles probably contained ketamine and have urged anyone else with the white Gayatri-brand aloe vera juice to hand bottles in to their nearest police station.

Police said hospital tests indicated the patients may have suffered ketamine poisoning, but forensic tests on the liquid are still being conducted.

One woman said she bought her juice from a shop while the other said she bought hers from a Mela event at Abbey Primary School.

Environmental health officers have removed bottles from Pratham Pan store, in Leire Street, Belgrave, Leicester, and handed them to police.

But owner Anil Patel said the aloe vera juices had been delivered to him by mistake and denied selling any bottles.

He said he had sent some parcels to his home while staying in India, but when three parcels turned up at his house, one was not for him.

He said he tried to contact Parcelforce but had no reply and eventually opened the box.

Mr Patel said: "I saw the juices and decided to put them out in the shop and sell them. "But I never sold any of the bottles.

"Then the police and council officers came and told me some women were ill. They took the bottles and I gave them all the details I had.

"I am shocked by what has happened. It is not very good at all. But I didn't sell any of the bottles."

He said he had a stall selling juices at Abbey Primary School Mela last Saturday, but did not sell any of the aloe vera juice there as he had not opened the box at that point.

One of the women affected has been discharged and the second remains in hospital and is said to be recovering well.

Dr Philip Monk, from the Health Protection Agency, said no more bottles had been found and no new cases reported.

He said that 18 bottles from one box were now with police – although investigators were not sure how many were still in circulation.

He believed it was probably neat ketamine but thought the drinks had not been widely distributed.

He said: "At the start of the weekend this was a public health investigation. But now the balance of probability says this should be treated as a criminal investigation. And so it switched over to the police.

"However we are still keeping an open mind."

Detective Chief Inspector Chris Redfern said it was too early to speculate and a number of lines of inquiry were being followed up.

Amlesh Karle, a director of Indian-based herbal company Gayatri, said their products were not exported to the UK.

He said: "I do not know how this has happened and how this has got into the bottles. Maybe someone has bought these bottles in India and then used them for something else.

"We have not been contacted by anyone with official confirmation of what has happened."

A Food Standards Agency spokesman said he believed the problem was localised to Leicester.