'Mass casualty incident' sees 11 children hospitalised after eating 'toxic mushrooms'
13 October 2024, 07:19 | Updated: 13 October 2024, 07:23
Eleven children have been taken to hospital in what authorities described as a "mass casualty" situation after consuming "toxic mushrooms".
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Emergency services responded to a report that the group of children had fallen seriously ill in Peach Bottom Township, Pennsylvania, at around 9.30pm on Friday evening.
Ambulance crews responded to what they believed was a "toxic mushroom" incident, with the children falling ill after reportedly ingesting the mushrooms, the Delta-Cardiff volunteer company station 57 said.
Six ambulances rushed patients to a nearby hospital, the fire company said.
Police also attended the scene, WHP-TV in Harrisburg reported.
The fire company told the US news station that the patients were all members of an Amish family who ate wild mushrooms they found in the woods.
“Units were advised that 11 people had ingested toxic mushrooms and were all ill,” the company said in a social media post.
According to reports, responders initially only found 10 patients at the scene.
It later emerged that one other member of the family had staggered half a mile down the road to a nearby public phone booth, where they called 911, WHP reported.
Emergency units were dispatched from nearby York and Lancaster counties and from Harford county, Maryland.
There are thought to be around 250 varieties of poisonous mushrooms which grow in the wild North America, according to the British Columbia Centre for Disease Control.
The incident comes just months after a woman died and two others were rushed to hospital after allegedly consuming a mushroom drink at a health retreat in Australia.
Police have said they are investigating the circumstances around her death and have asked anyone with information to reach out and contact them.
Police and emergency services were called to the Soul Barn health retreat in Clunes, near Ballarat, west of Melbourne at around midnight on Sunday.
