Dozens of girls were hospitalized on Saturday after being gassed at a dozen schools in Iran, amid a wave of poisonings at girls' schools.
The Iranian authorities and official media have confirmed the attacks on six schools in the Persian country in the last few hours, but activist groups denounce that the number exceeds a dozen with hundreds of young people affected.
As a result of these poisonings, at least 27 students from a school in the city of Kavar, in the south of the country, were hospitalized after suffering from nausea and dizziness. While in Urmia, in northwestern Iran, another 30 students were admitted, according to data compiled for the Tasnim agency by the spokesman for the provincial Department of Education, Hamidreza Shabani.
The wave of poisonings is shaking the educational community after similar attacks were registered in the last hours in the University of Medical Sciences of the city of Zanjan, in two colleges in the cities of Hamedan and Kabudarahang, and in the University of Medical Sciences of Hamedan .
At first, the authorities did not link the cases. It's winter in Iran, so temperatures often drop below freezing overnight. Many schools are heated by natural gas, which has led to the hypothesis that carbon monoxide poisoning could have occurred.
But the activist collective 1500tasvir reported cases of gas poisoning in more than a dozen cities across the country, in Tehran, Shahriar, Pakdasht, Borujerd, Safadasht, Lahijan and Rasht, in addition to those already confirmed by the authorities.
These incidents began in the Shi'ite holy city of Qom in November and have multiplied in recent days.
The young women have suffered from headaches, heart palpitations, nausea, dizziness and sometimes the inability to move their limbs after smelling a rotten orange and cleaning products.
The president of Iran, Ebrahim Raisí, affirmed yesterday that the "enemies" of the country are carrying out these gas attacks to cause chaos and assured that he will put an end to this "conspiracy".
Both the Ministry of the Interior and the Ministry of Intelligence are investigating the poisonings, but have yet to report any progress clarifying what is happening.
These incidents are fueling popular discontent, especially among parents, given the ineffectiveness of the authorities in stopping attacks that seem destined to paralyze the education of the students.
