DUBAI, United Arab Emirates, May 17 (UPI) -- Ten coworkers in Dubai were hospitalized for possible pesticide poisoning, police say.
The victims, all employees of a jewelry store and all roommates, were rushed to the hospital Wednesday morning for what doctors initially suspected was food poisoning.
"By around 3 a.m. on Wednesday, they all started vomiting and had diarrhea," a source told Gulf News. "Few of them fainted even.
"One person who was relatively fine ran to the nearby apartment where their colleagues stayed and alerted everyone. That is the reason they are all still alive."
When the victims reached the hospital, food poisoning was ruled out because five had eaten at one restaurant, and the other five ate at another. Dubai Municipality officials finally zeroed in on the culprit: pesticide cans. Officials said the pesticide, found in the apartment next door, gave off fumes that had reached the air conditioning duct, which then dispersed them into the next apartment.
All the victims were released Wednesday afternoon.
