Iraqi police seriously taken ill after meal

Breaking news on Sky News at the moment, hundreds of Iraqi policemen have been taken ill after eating thier first meal after breaking thier daily fast for Ramadan.

BAGHDAD (AP) — Hundreds of Iraqi policemen fell sick from poisoning Sunday at a base in southern Iraq after the evening meal breaking their daily Ramadan fast, and officials said they were investigating whether the poisoning was intentional.
An official with the Environment Ministry said 11 policemen had died. However, the governor of Wasit province — where the poisoning took place — denied any deaths, though he said some of the victims were in critical condition. There was no immediate explanation for the contradictory reports.

Some of the policemen began bleeding from the ears and nose after the meal, said Jassim al-Atwan, an inspector for the Environment Ministry, who was serving as a liaison in the investigation between the Health Ministry and the base, located in the town of Numaniyah.

Source: Iraqi police poisoning

I'm no expert on food poisoning but can it make your ears bleed? There must be more to it than a food bug.

The news channels are saying that there are deaths already from this, either way this does'nt look good.

CX.

I'm not an expert, but it sounds way too severe to have been food poisoning.

Maybe rat poison? Easy to get, and I think most rat poisons work by thinning out the blood so much it flows out freely...

Very nasty.

Yes, it does sound like more than mere "food poisoning".

However, they weren't actual IP's, they were police cadets, still going thru the police academy training.

Either way, it's horrible. It'll be interesting to see what the test results are.