Japanese encephalitis (JE) has claimed the lives of eight more children in the last five days in Bihar's Gaya district, taking the death toll in the epidemic to 62, a health official said Thursday.

The two children died in the last 24 hours and six in the last five days at Anugrah Narayan Medical College and Hospital (ANMCH), about 100 km from here, hospital superintendent Sitaram Prasad said.