Iran: hundred new cases of schoolgirl intoxication in city of Ardabil

According to the estimates on Wednesday of the parliamentary health commission on Wednesday, nearly 800 students have been affected since the first cases of poisoning by respiratory means at the end of November to Qom.

MO12345LEMONDE with AFP

More than a hundred young girls were poisoned by gas on Wednesday 1 Mars, in Iran schools, after a series of similar cases since November which has aroused growing emotion in the country, according to local media.

Students of seven schools of girls in the city of Ardabil, in the northwest of the country, were unit in the morning by gas fumes and 108 people were transported to the hospital, announced the Head of his hospital service at the Tasnim news agency.

The general condition of the students, who suffered from breathing and nausea difficulties, evolves favorably, he said. The media also reported new cases of poisoning in at least three Tehran establishments.

In a high school in Tehransar, in the west of the capital, students were “intoxicated by the projection of a sort of spray”, explained, for its part, the Fars news agency, which quotes parents of students. The same source reported on the mobilization of emergency services on site. 2> 800 students affected since the end of November 2>

According to the estimates given Wednesday by the spokesperson for the Parliamentary Health Commission, Zahra Sheikhi, nearly eight hundred students have been affected since the first cases of support by respiratory tract at the end of November in the holy city of Qom, including four hundred others in Boroujerd (west). According to the results of toxicological examinations provided by the Ministry of Health and cited by a deputy, the toxic substance used in QOM consisted in particular of N2 gas, based on nitrogen, used in industry or as agricultural fertilizers.

The Iranian president, Ebrahim Raïssi, instructed the Minister of the Interior on Wednesday, Ahmad Vahidi, to “follow the case as soon as possible”, and to “inform” the public on the investigation in order to “sweep Family concerns “, according to the presidency site. In the afternoon, Vahidi announced to the press that the authorities still investigated the “potential officials” of the poisoning but that no arrest had yet taken place. “Until now, we have no final relationship specifying that a specific substance of a toxic nature has been used” to poison students, he added.

The case caused a wave of anger in the country, where voices denounced the silence of the authorities in the face of the growing number of affected schools. Some schoolgirls were briefly hospitalized but none was seriously affected.

The Ministry of Health explained on Sunday that “some individuals” sought, by these actions, to “close all schools, especially girls’ schools”. Purpose of a large consensus, education for all is compulsory in Iran, where girls even represent a majority of students in universities.

/Media reports cited above.