Ugandan police investigate deaths of four pupils in suspected school poisoning

Ugandan police investigate deaths of four pupils in suspected school poisoning

The head teacher of the school has been arrested to assist police investigations.

Ugandan police are investigating the deaths of four pupils at a school in the capital Kampala which they suspect may be the result of poisoning.

The four girls, aged between nine and 11 years, died on Tuesday. Three of the pupils died at home while the fourth passed away while receiving emergency treatment at a hospital.

The head teacher at the school, Ta'aliim Primary School and Quran Memorisation Centre, has been arrested to assist with investigations.

According to the school, eight pupils had eaten oranges shared by a fellow pupil.

Five pupils, including the four who later died, started vomiting. The fifth is still in hospital.

Post-mortem examinations are being carried out to determine the exact cause of death.

A police spokesperson was quoted by local media as saying that detectives would visit the village where the oranges the pupils ate came from.

The centre has been cordoned off as a crime scene.

Ugandan media shared videos of grieving parents describing their children's final moments, with some accusing the school of failing to provide clear and timely information.

The police have offered condolences to the bereaved families and affected community and say more information will be provided in due course.

The tragedy comes at a time when concerns are mounting over health and safety conditions in schools across Uganda.

In brief

Ugandan police are investigating the deaths of four pupils at a school in the capital Kampala which they suspect may be the result of poisoning. Three of the pupils died at home while the fourth passed away while receiving emergency treatment at a hospital. According to the school, eight pupils had eaten oranges shared by a fellow pupil. Five pupils, including the four who later died, started vomiting.

This is the opening of the story, shared with credit to BBC News — World. The rest of the report — with every detail — continues on the publisher’s website.

Continue reading at BBC News — World ↗

Cookie settings

Choose which cookies we may use. You can change this at any time from Cookie settings in the footer. Details of each cookie are in the Cookie Policy.

Strictly necessary

Needed for sign-in, security, payments and remembering these choices. Always on.

Preferences

Remember settings such as dark mode.

Analytics & performance

Help us count visits, understand which pages, devices and countries our readers use, and measure how well the site performs – anonymous and aggregated.

Advertising & marketing

Lets advertising partners show and personalise adverts, measure impressions, clicks and visits, prevent ad fraud and pay us – this is how the free site is funded.

🔔 News notifications

Get headlines from NewsHub on this device — even when the site is closed.

You can switch this off at any time. Works on Android, Windows, Mac and Linux browsers; on iPhone/iPad add the site to your Home Screen first.