News
20 in hospital after Queen’s birthday dinner at Colombo hotel
At least 20 people fell ill, after a five-star hotel dinner on Friday night to celebrate the 87th birthday of Britain’s Queen Elizabeth, officials said yesterday. They said the affected invitees were rushed to private hospitals and 15 of them were in intensive care.
The dinner organised by the Sri Lanka United Kingdom Society took place at the Cinnamon Grand Hotel with some 400 guests in attendance.
The affected guests being treated by a doctor in the hotel lobby
Among them was British High Commissioner James Dauris and officials said he was not affected. But at the start of the event, the envoy in his dinner speech had praised the menu. Most of the victims were males in the age group of 55-60.
According to eyewitnesses, the victims had complained of dizziness, blackouts or chest pains and many of them had to be carried in to the waiting ambulances.
The guests fell ill after consuming one or more soups and other food items served as starters before the main dinner, according to an official of John Keells Holdings, the owners of the hotel. He said samples of the food items and beverages served had been sent to the Medical Research Institute (MRI), the Government Analyst and the City Micro Biological Laboratory for a full investigation and their reports would be disclosed in a day or two. Also sent for analysis were samples of some food items and alcohol sent to the hotel from an outside caterer.
The hotel management has also started its own in-house investigation to ascertain what happened and even the possibility of poison has not been ruled out. Kitchens which prepared the food were being closely checked and the staff questioned.
He said the dinner was an annual event that had taken place for the past 10 years. The guests were mostly Sri Lankans.
In a statement yesterday, the hotel said only twelve out of 175 guests attending the function fell ill during the event.
It said the hotel facilitated the transfer of the affected guests to hospitals and all twelve guests had been discharged yesterday.
The Colombo Municipality’s Chief Medical Officer Dr. Vijayamuni Soysa who examined some of the patients said he believed a mushroom soup was the poison agent. However this could be confirmed only after laboratory tests.
Dr. Soysa said some of the guests had earlier in the evening complained of a nauseating smell of gas and this too was being checked.