POLICE IN Edinburgh have dealt with more than 100 calls from the
public following the poisoning of tonic water at a supermarket.
A police spokesman said a number of leads were being followed up but
no new cases had been confirmed in addition to the four notified at the
weekend.
Beatrice Agutter, aged 11, of Athelstaneford, East Lothian, was
yesterday said to be ''much improved'' at the Royal Hospital for Sick
Children in Edinburgh. Her mother, Dr Alex Agutter had earlier been
released. Both became violently ill after drinking tonic water spiked
with an atropine-type poison, derived from deadly nightshade.
Mrs Elizabeth Smith and her son Andrew, 18,also received hospital
treatment after drinking tonic bought at Safeway's Hunter's Tryst
supermarket in Edinburgh last Wednesday.
Dr Walter Sneader, of Strathclyde University said: ''Atropine itself
is one of the most deadly poisons. It does not take much to kill, and
had it been a young child or an elderly person it could have killed.''
Lothian and Borders police said yesterday detailed analysis of the
precise poison involved was continuing and results were not expected for
some time.
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