Cairo - Egyptian authorities and witnesses say villagers have locked
the health minister and a provincial governor inside a local hospital
room after allegedly contaminated water caused more than 50 residents to
become ill.
Health Ministry official Amr Qandil says a hospital
in the Nile Delta province of Menoufia, 60km north of Cairo, on Tuesday
received dozens of people vomiting, feverish and with severe cases of
diarrhoea.
He says a medical team collected samples of the water
the villagers say is polluted in order to determine whether it is the
cause of the sickness.
During a visit by Health minister Mohammed
Mustafa and governor Ashraf Helal to the hospital on Tuesday, angry
family members held aloft bottles of brackish-looking water while
chanting "drink it", then locked the two inside a room.
- AP
