Hoax drug scare hits French schools

Local authority offices in the southwestern French département of Haute Garonne have reportedly been inundated in recent weeks with 'phones calls, letters and emails from concerned parents.

They were all acting on information that had dropped into their inboxes or they had read on the Net that the drug, "Strawberry quick" or "Strawberry meth", a flavoured crystal meth, was circulating in the area's schools.

"Strawberry quick" (snapshot from YouTube video)

Appearing to have been sent by the local authority and stamped with the official logo of the French interior ministry, the email warned that a "new drug" was being passed around and used in schools in the area.

"Children eat the drugs thinking they're sweets," read the email.

"And shortly afterwards they're admitted to hospital suffering from a number of side effects" it warned, stating that the local health authority had put in place a special unit to deal with the problem.

But according to the local authority, the alarm was nothing but a hoax and there was no need to be concerned.

In a statement it urged parents against passing the information on to others and an official, Loïc Armand, said that, "No special child protection unit had been set up as suggested in the email."

France is not alone in having had a hoax scare surrounding Strawberry quick.

It made its first "appearance" in 2007 when an identical rumour made the headlines in the United States after emails began to circulate suggesting that unsuspecting children were being given the drug.

And in March 2008 police in the British county of Oxfordshire sent out a warning to at least 80 schools after acting on a similar email hoax.

Flight quarantined for two hours following false alarm

Passengers aboard a flight from the Portuguese capital Lisbon to the southwestern French city of Toulouse found themselves in quarantine when they arrived at their destination - the reason, a suspected case of cholera aboard the 'plane.

But in reality it turned out to be a false alarm caused by a misunderstanding between one of the passengers and a member of the cabin crew, and a system of "coping" with a potential crisis that took on a dynamic of its own.

A Portugalia Embraer 145 (image from Wikipedia, author - Bthebest)

It all began half an hour after take off when a passenger aboard the scheduled flight, operated by Portugal's national airline TAP, felt unwell and made his way to the loo.

Concerned for his state of health, a member of the cabin crew attempted to find out what wrong.

And that was when the problems really started.

The stewardess, who reportedly didn't speak a word of French, misunderstood what the passenger - himself a doctor - had said.

Somehow she confused his explanation of "having a simple stomach ache" as being a "suspected case of cholera" and she took the appropriate action by informing the captain.

It was, of course, a false alarm, but one which quickly took on a life of its own.

The passenger was confined to the back of the 'plane, the cabin crew donned the obligatory masks, no food was served for the duration of the flight and the authorities in Toulouse were alerted.

In the meantime another doctor aboard confirmed the passenger's self-diagnosis, but that could not prevent the 'plane being greeted on landing by the emergency services and a two-hour quarantine being place while investigations were conducted.

It was, as Françoise Souliman, the secretary general of the préfecture of the département of Haute Garonne, explained afterwards, a false alarm based on a simple misunderstanding, but one which had required appropriate action.

But that perhaps was little consolation for the passengers who were reportedly offered no explanation throughout the flight and must have been more than a little concerned when, on arrival, they saw the emergency services board the 'plane.

Has anyone seen my wallaby?

Understandably perhaps not a question often asked here in France where the most usual "lost" signs when it comes to domestic pets, would be for a missing moggy or a peripatetic pooch.

But for Franck Giroussin the fate of his wallaby, Eora, has become a cause for concern, especially as a cold spell hits large parts of the country including his "habitat" in the southwest of France.

Unlike the Xertigny crocodile, the case of Eora involves a documented animal, who until September this year had been happily enjoying life in his enclosure in the village of Ambax (population just 69 - people that is) in southwestern département of Haute Garonne.

Since heeding the call of the wild and grasping his chance to break free, the missing marsupial has been spotted on a couple of occasions.

The first time was in Espaon just 15 kilometres away when two elderly women apparently saw "a kangeroo in a field" but kept the information to themselves for fear of appearing ridiculous.

And then a few days ago Eora made another appearance - this 19 time kilometres from his home base on the edge of a forest in the town of Rieumes.

Hardly a huge distance for the one-metre macropod which can "leap six metres in length and reach a top speed of 40 kilometres and hour," according to Giroussin.

He has alerted police, local authorities and vets in the area of the animals disappearance.

While Eora is certainly not aggressive and therefore presents no danger and won't bite anyone, he is apparently of a rather nervous disposition and not that easy to approach, let alone capture.

Which is why Giroussin has invested in a special rifle with a hypodermic tranquiliser as being "the only way to catch him" and urges anyone catching sight of the wallaby to contact him or the police directly.

Let's just hope that in a country in which hunting is still a very popular pastime in rural areas, someone won't mistakenly take a shot at Eora thinking they're bagging a more familiar animal.

An affair to follow.