March 7 (UPI) — Iranian officials said Tuesday people have been arrested in five provinces in connection to a series of mysterious poisonings targeting schoolgirls.
Deputy Interior Minister Majid Mirahmadi said “a number of people” have been arrested and that agencies were conducting investigations into the poisonings. State-run Iran media said the poisoning has affected 1,200 Iranian schoolgirls since November, but one lawmaker put the actual number at 5,000.
The numbers rose dramatically over the weekend with students describing unexplained odors that smelled like paint in one instance, perfume in another and something burning at another location.
The girls said they experienced numbness, temporary paralysis or near blackouts after noticing the smells.
In the meantime, Iran’s judiciary charged three news media outlets and three individuals, including actor Reza Kianian, for making comments on the illnesses, accusing them of “spreading rumors and lies.”
Prosecutors said cases were filed against the editorial directors of the HamMihan, Roydad24 and Sharq newspapers, political activists Azar Mansouri and Kianian.
The first report of the poisonings came in November, with 18 students hospitalized after suffering symptoms that included nausea, headaches, coughing, breathing difficulties, heart palpitations and numbness and pain in their hands or legs.
Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and others have called it poisoning but the cause is still being investigated.
Protesters demonstrated against the poisonings in Tehran on Saturday amid reports that dozens more students were hospitalized.
