Series of school poisoning tragedies rocks South Africa

A great tragedy occurred at an elementary school in South Africa. Three students – two brothers and their sister – died after eating a meal brought from home. Meanwhile, in another school on the same day, a student ingested rat poison.

The first incident took place at a school in the town of Evaton near Johannesburg. The Gauteng Provincial Department of Education reported that the siblings felt ill at school. Initially, a teacher noticed alarming symptoms in one of the students and later in his brother and sister.

All the students were taken to the school clinic. When asked what they had eaten, the three said, "porridge, milk, and cookies brought from home."

As their condition worsened, the paramedics were called to the school. "The children were taken to a nearby clinic, but they could not be saved," reported Steve Mabona, spokesperson for the Gauteng Provincial Department of Education.

On the same day – Monday – at a high school in Ekurhuleni in South Africa, two students ingested rat poison. The substance was scattered on the school grounds.

"One of the students fainted and had to be carried to the school's administration building, while the other, though visibly weakened, managed to walk there herself," said Mabona.

In this case, emergency services were also called to the school. Unfortunately, one of the students died before the ambulance arrived, and the other was taken to the hospital.

The circumstances of the students' deaths in both cases are under investigation by the police.

Source: PAP