At least 150 school girls along with five teachers reported sick to hospitals on Wednesday after a septic well was opened near their school in northern Mazar-e-Sharif city, security and health officials said.
The head of public health hospital in the city said that the incident happened when students at Khorasan Girls’ School in Mazar-e-Sharif started getting nauseous. It was further revealed that students started feeling sick after a septic well was opened near the school.
“Their blood pressure and breathing were fine but some of them coughed and had some problem in their throats. They believe that the stench is the cause of the incident,” Civil Hospital of Mazar-e-Sharif head Dr Khaja Noor Mohammad Faiz said.
A teacher and some of the students said that they started feeling sick after they smelt some kind of gas around the school area.
“There was an unpleasant smell and my classmates fainted. Soon after that, I also fainted,” a schoolgirl said.
“150 students of Khorasan School were hospitalised due to the incident and hospital officials assured us that the students are fine,” Provincial Intelligence chief Abdul Razaq Qadiri said.
He said that classes had been suspended as a result of the incident.
This is the first time that school girls were poisoned in Mazar-e-Sharif city in this current year.
