Afghan girls' school attacked with poisonous gas

An early morning mass gas-poisoning at a girls' school in eastern Afghanistan Tuesday left more than 130 persons, most of them students, hospitalized, with five of them briefly slipping into coma.

It is not clear from the reports available how the poison gas got administered.

And, 98 students were hospitalized with symptoms, including headache, vomiting and shivering after they inhaled poison gas at a school in Kapisa province.

Six teachers and two guards are also under treatment, reports quoting officials and doctors said.

Authorities suspect the involvement of Taliban sympathizers, who oppose girls' education in the Islamic country.

During the Taliban rule in Kabul before 2001, women were banned from both work and education.

It was the third such case in the region in less than three weeks. Scores of girl students were taken ill in two such incidents on April 26 and May 11.

Blood samples of the victims were sent to the nearby U.S. Bagram airbase to be diagnosed.

by RTTNews Staff Writer

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