Ailment fells 290. baffles police

Press, 15 July 1980, Page 8

Ailment fells 290. baffles police

NZPA • London Seven children were de tained in hospitals yesterday after being struck down by a mystery ailment at a junior jazz band carnival.

A total of 290 people needed hospital treatment when they started collapsing "like nine-pins" at the band contest in a field at Kirkby in AShfield, near Mansfield, Nottinghamshire.

The police at nearby Sutton in Ashfield said yesterday that the seven were detained for observation. None of them was seriously ill. But the police admitted they were completely baf-

fled as to what caused the sudden illness which caused giddiness, nausea, headaches, and collapse. Detective Inspector Eric Hogden, who is heading the investigation, said: “The whole thing seems to be a complete mystery. Food poisoning and mass hysteria have definitely been ruled out.

One of the organisers, Mrs Stephanie Booth, said: “It has been a disaster. We have lost about £lOOO ($2380) and we do not know just what caused it.”

Most of the 290 who needed treatment were children, but some adults and even a horse were later affected. The 290 were ferried to hospitals in Mansfield, Worksop, Nottingham, and Chesterfield. The police said that they had taken grass and food samples for forensic testing.

But a spokesman at Sutton in Ashfield said they had ruled out that the illness could have been caused by chemicals sprayed on to the field itself.

“The field has not been sprayed for 20 year’s,” said the spokesman.

He said that environmental health, water board, healthy and safety, and agricultural in - spectorate experts had all failed so far to find the cause.

“We've had a bizarre suggestion from a man in Scotland who phoned to say it could have been caused by high-frequency radio waves. “He claimed he experienced a similar case in Canada two years ago. We’re checking him out. We have to give it some credibility until we can come up with something ourselves,” said the spokme'sman.

A gymkhana was later held on the field which is used regularly lor local shows and there were no more signs of the ailment.