ENTIRE BANK STAFF POISONED BY A BOGUS OFFICIAL

Wanganui Chronicle, 28 January 1948, Page 5

ENTIRE BANK STAFF POISONED BY A BOGUS OFFICIAL

(N.Z.P.A.—Reuter—C-ioiTight) Recd. 7.40 p.m. Tokio, Jan. 27. The entire staff of a Tokio bank were poisoned yester&iy by a man posing as a health official of a metropolitan Government. Of a staff of 16, 11 are dead and five critfcally ill in hospital. The murderer told the manager he was sent by the health section to disinfect the bank as a mass outbreak of dysentry was feared. From the stories of survivors it appears that the man then producefl a vial containing a colourless liquid which he instructed all the members of the staff to drink. The staff drank the Equid in turn and immediately thereafter collapsed in a comatose condition. It has not yet been aascertained whether the bank was robbed, because the survivors are still too ill to give a coherent account.