36 Made Sick by Vietnamese School Prank
HANOI — A ploy to get out of school by making a teacher sick went awry when 36 students became ill, three seriously, after inhaling a toxic powder, police said Wednesday.
Three teenage boys have been arrested in Vietnam’s central highlands province of Daklak for their part in the plot.
Police said Pham Van Thanh, 16, brought to school a powder his father had bought to kill termites, then asked two friends to put it on their teacher’s chair.
Thanh told police that he thought the powder would make the teacher sneeze and cry. Instead, classmates got sick when they inhaled the substance.
Thirty-six students were taken to a hospital, three in serious condition, doctors said, with symptoms including headaches, convulsions and screaming.
Police are running tests on the powder to determine its nature, saying it seems to affect the central nervous system.
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