RUSSIA - Gas poisons Russian shoppers

[Guest guest]

Gas poisons Russian

shoppers

Authorities: Other

outlets targeted, commercial dispute possible

Monday,

December 26, 2005; Posted: 8:29 p.m. EST (01:29 GMT)

 

ST. PETERSBURG, Russia (AP) -- A gas attack at a home-supply store in Russia's second-largest city left more than 70 people ill Monday, and devices with wires, timers and

ampules were found in the other three outlets of the same chain, authorities

said.

Police and government officials said they believed a

commercial dispute or blackmail attempt was behind the incidents at the Maksidom

chain. The incident caused no serious injuries but raised fears of attacks

during the holiday shopping season despite assurances that terrorism was not

involved.

Seventy-eight people sought medical care and 66 of them were

hospitalized, Emergency Situations Ministry spokesman Viktor Beltsov said. St. Petersburg governor Valentina

Matviyenko later said that all who sought medical help had been sent home and

were not suffering any ill effects.

Matviyenko echoed law enforcement officials who said the

incidents were probably a case of hooliganism or an effort by a competitor to

hurt the business. Maksidom officials said they had received threats recently

that sales would be disrupted before New Year's, when Russians

traditionally give gifts.

" The first reaction is that it is one of the

competitors of this store chain, " Matviyenko said in televised comments.

The gas was preliminarily determined to be methyl mercaptan,

St. Petersburg police spokesman Vyacheslav Stepchenko said.

Methyl mercaptan is a gas with an acrid smell that is both

naturally occurring and manufactured for use in plastics and pesticides, the

U.S. Health and Human Services' Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry says.

The agency's Web site said little is known about the gas's potential health

effects.

One person exposed to very high concentrations of the gas

went into a coma and died, the Web site says. But prominent Russia chemist Lev Fyodorov,

head of an environmental group called For Chemical Safety, said on NTV

television that the gas rarely has long-lasting effects.

Stepchenko said that a custodian at one

branch of Maksidom discovered a suspicious box before the store's opening time and inside it found ampules -- or small glass

vials -- attached to wires and a timer.

The woman inadvertently broke one of the ampules and noticed

a repulsive smell, but apparently was not sickened, he said.

All those who sought medical care were from another branch

of the chain, where gas was released after employees heard a noise and police

and security officers called to the scene found a mechanism with a timer

attached to ampules that had shattered, Stepchenko said.

He said customers were among those sickened, but the ITAR-Tass news agency

quoted unnamed city police officials as saying that the store had not opened

when the gas was released and that all those affected were employees or police.

NTV showed cots set up in what it said was the cafeteria of

an emergency hospital because the influx of patients from the store caused

overflow, but said that none of those affected agreed to talk to reporters.

The patients complained of nausea and vomiting -- as well as

chest pain and high blood pressure, probably a result of nervousness, nurse

Alexei Afanasyev said. They reported an odor like garlic, he said.

Boxes with glass containers attached to timers were found in

the chain's two other stores by employees who carried them outside and

covered them with buckets; police explosives experts defused them, Stepchenko

said.

Officials of the St.

Petersburg chain -- which sells

furnishings, home-repair material and other domestic articles -- told police

they had received letters in recent weeks threatening to disrupt the company's sales during the

holiday gift-buying period, Stepchenko said.

" According to store management, this was the work of

competitors, " he said in televised comments.

http://www.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/asiapcf/12/26/russia.gas.ap/index.html

 

Dear List Members,

 

Dasha: Ra/Ke/Sa/Ve/Ma.

 

 

 

 

 

Best wishes,

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

satva

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Jorge Angelino

 

 

Rua da Sociedade Filarmónica

Perpétua Azeitonense, 29

2925-598 Azeitão

Portugal

 

 

 

 

jorge.angelino

 

 

 

 

 

 

tel:

mobile:

 

 

210813674

963916784

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Add me to your address book...

 

 

Want a signature like

this?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

--

 

 

Version: 7.1.371 / Virus Database: 267.14.7/214 - Release 23.12.2005