Allergic reaction to school trip – 13 children in hospital
Published: Tuesday, May 28th 2024, 21:20
Volver a Live Feed
Contact with an unknown substance caused allergic reactions in children in a primary school class in Rünenberg BL early on Tuesday afternoon. 13 of the nine to eleven-year-olds had to be taken to various hospitals. The class was on an excursion.
Contact with the substance occurred in a forest, as reported by the Basel-Landschaft cantonal police in the evening. Several children suffered skin and eye irritation as well as breathing difficulties. Three children were flown to hospital by rescue helicopter. Ten others were taken to hospital by ambulance.
What had triggered the allergic reactions was not completely clear by the evening. However, according to the cantonal police, the symptoms and investigations carried out by the emergency services indicate that the children had come into contact with the oak processionary moth. The stinging hairs of the caterpillar of this moth can cause caterpillar dermatitis.
The ambulance service with several ambulances and two rescue helicopters, the Care Team, the Basel Fire Inspectorate, the Wisenberg fire department, a cantonal civil defense unit, representatives of the municipality and the cantonal police were deployed.
©Keystone/SDA
Spanish 
English 
German 
French 
Arabic