Dozens hospitalised in Guinea after eating petrol-laced rice

CONAKRY (AFP) - Dozens of people in Guinea were hospitalised on Tuesday after eating rice cooked with petrol, doctors told AFP.

"In all, 114 people were admitted" to the main hospital in Guinea's capital Conakry, a doctor, speaking on condition of anonymity, told AFP.

The patients suffered stomach aches, diarrhoea and vomiting, the doctor said, adding that they were "treated after having consumed rice with sauce prepared with petrol".

Another doctor confirmed the hospitalisation, adding that it appeared that a cook in a small restaurant in Conakry had "mistaken petrol for peanut oil".

The mass hospitalisation caused panic among patients and visitors at the hospital, prompting dozens to flee as they thought the incoming patients had contracted the Ebola virus - a highly contagious haemorrhagic fever that has claimed more than 200 lives in Guinea.

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