JEDDAH, 19 July — At least 128 people, most of them Saudi teenagers, were hospitalized with food poisoning after eating at a restaurant in Turba, a township about 200 kilometers from the summer tourist resort of Taif, press reports said yesterday.
Authorities closed down the Ariyana Bukhari Restaurant from where the victims had their dinner on Sunday night before they fell ill, Al-Watan Arabic newspaper said. It said 49 people were still in hospital while 79 had been discharged.
Dr. Maatouk Al-Osaimy, health director in Taif, said his department was informed about the food poisoning incident late Monday by the Turba General Hospital, which had received 61 cases by then.
“The number of cases went up during the past two days and several doctors and nurses were called in from nearby health centers to attend the cases,” the health director said.
Al-Osaimy said three ambulances with necessary medical equipment and supplies had been sent to Turba to help the hospital to handle the crisis. Nine cases have been transferred to the King Faisal Specialist Hospital in Taif.
He said the health department’s preventive medicine section inspected the restaurant to find out the cause of food poisoning.
Abdullah Al-Baqami, a victim, told the Okaz daily that his family and himself suffered stomachache after eating at the restaurant.
“We rushed to the hospital where we found a large number of people suffering from the same problem with similar symptoms,” he added.
Cops die in road accident
Two police officers died in Turba after their vehicles collided head on, the Okaz reported yesterday.
Abdul Rahman Al-Harithy was going home after duty while his colleague Adha Al-Shalawi was coming to work when the accident occurred.
“The two cars caught fire due to the impact of the collision and the two officers died on the spot,” the paper said.
Hasan Suhaimy, another officer who was to accompany Al-Harithy, escaped the accident because he changed his plan in the last minute, the paper said.
