By Xinhua
Baghdad : Cake poisoned with thallium has caused two children dead and five people seriously ill after it was delivered to a football club in Baghdad, a team official and police said on Sunday.
The cake was delivered to the Air Force football club on Saturday last week by a sports coach who had left on bad terms and then recently returned.
Club president Samir Kadham told AFP that the general secretary of the team Mohammed Rasool and chief administrator of the club, Sattar Ibrahim each took some of the cake home.
By the next day, seven members of the two families were ill, including Rasool and Ibrahim, and admitted to Medical City hospital in Baghdad.
Ibrahim’s 14-year-old son died followed later by his son of 18 months who was apparently poisoned through contaminated breast milk from his mother.
According to Kadham, the family members were moved to hospital in Amman where they were diagnosed as suffering poisoning by thallium and are gravely ill.
Police said the sports coach who delivered the cake had been arrested while a Baghdad bakery where the cake was baked is under investigation.