UNITED STATES: According to local authorities, at least 57 kids were poisoned at a rural secondary school in the Mexican state of Chiapas by an unknown toxin.
The third mass poisoning at Chiapas schools mentioned in local media over the previous two weeks, which alarmed parents and children alike, occurred on Friday.
The Mexican Social Security Institute said on Friday that 57 adolescent students from the rural Bochil hamlet had presented to the neighbourhood hospital with signs of poisoning. According to the institute, all of the students were in stable condition except for one who was taken to a hospital in the state’s capital in a “delicate” condition.
The reason for the incident has not been determined by the authorities. However, local news sources reported that some parents think the students may have consumed tainted food or drink.
In a statement, the leaders of Bochil said, “We are outraged by these events,” and they added that they are aiding a state prosecutor’s probe.
Social media videos depicted a hysterical scenario in which adults carrying teenagers wearing school uniforms rushed along a hospital hallway while shouting anxiously.
After hearing rumours in the local media and on social media that pupils had tested positive for cocaine, the state prosecutor’s office announced on social media on Saturday that it had undertaken 15 toxicology tests, all of which had come back negative for illicit narcotics.
In a Facebook video posted on Saturday, several parents gathered outside the secondary school’s basketball court and requested information from the authorities as more than a dozen police, some wearing shields, stood by and watched.
One of the men in the film claimed that his daughter had been poisoned and that she and other classmates had tested positive for cocaine at a private laboratory.
When asked about previous poisoning incidents, the state prosecutor’s office stated that it would continue to test children.
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