Monitoring Desk
Dozens of Iranian girls from 26 schools are reportedly being treated in hospitals for poisoning following another wave of apparent toxic gas attacks.
Since November, over 1,000 students have been affected. They have experienced respiratory issues, nausea, dizziness, and fatigue. Many Iranians believe the poisonings are a deliberate attempt to force the closure of girls’ schools. But the government is yet to clarify whether it believes they are preplanned. Interior Minister Ahmad Vahidi, who has been tasked by the president with determining the “root cause” of the poisonings, dismissed as “false” a Fars news agency report that three people had been arrested on Wednesday.
He also accused foreign-based media and “mercenary groups” of exploiting the situation to wage psychological warfare and frighten people. Some students and parents speculated that schoolgirls were targeted because they participated in recent anti-government protests. According to local media and activists, the latest gas poisonings have affected at least 26 schools in five cities across Iran.
Students are treated in hospitals in Tehran
Ambulances arrive at schools and students are treated in hospitals in the capital Tehran, the northwestern city of Ardabil, and the western city of Kermanshah, according to BBC Persian verified videos. In one from Tehransar, in western Tehran, several girls from 13 Aban School are seen lying on hospital beds and receiving oxygen.
Another video from the city’s east shows girls sitting on the sidewalk in front of a primary school. A mother then runs up to the gate, screaming, “Where is my child?” “They’ve poisoned the students with gas,” a man responds. The public is putting pressure on authorities to put an end to the poisonings, which were initially concentrated in the Shia Muslim holy city of Qom, south of Tehran.
According to BBC Persian, at least 830 students, mostly schoolgirls, had been poisoned as of Sunday, while a member of parliament put the figure at 1,200 as of Tuesday in Qom and the western city of Borujerd alone. Before becoming ill, those who have been affected have reported smelling tangerine or rotten fish. Fars quoted the chairman of the parliamentary education committee, Alireza Monadi-Sefidan, as saying on Tuesday that an investigation had revealed that the toxic gas contained nitrogen.
However, on Wednesday, the interior minister told reporters that reports of a specific chemical substance being detected were false.
