Police in the town of Weiden in Bavaria
(Picture: AP)One man died and eight others were hospitalised after drinking spiked Champagne at a bar in Bavaria, German prosecutors said.
Senior prosecutor Gerd Schaefer confirmed a 52-year-old man had died in the town of Weidel on Saturday night after consuming a “toxic, poisonous” substance.
Mr Schaefer said toxicological tests have been completed and the poisonous substance was known, but he would not confirm local media reports that the champagne may have been laced with the drug Ecstasy.
Police said the incident happened shortly after a group of people had ordered and shared one bottle of champagne. When police arrived at the bar, they found people lying on the ground with cramps and eight of them had to be hospitalised.
Mr Schaefer said there was a suspicion of negligent homicide, but would not give further details.
In August last year, German police launched a murder probe after six people were taken to hospital in a case of suspected poisoning at a University in the city of Darmstadt.
They had all had food or drink from a small kitchen at Darmstadt Technical University’s campus. The “harmful” substance had been added to milk cartons or water, police said.
The UK has also seen a wave of spiking incidents in the past year.
Deputy Chief Constable Jason Harwin, the National Police Chiefs’ Council’s lead for drugs, said last month that 1,382 reports of people being spiked by injection had been made to police since September 2021.
Reports of needle spiking also began to emerge in October 2021, sparking a number of club boycotts across the UK over fears for women’s safety.
