medical attention in an outbreak of food poisoning in the west of the country.
The soldiers at the barracks in the western Manisa province ate a meal of soup, rice, chicken and yoghurt but hundreds were then rushed to hospital with stomach pains and dizziness.
A total of 731 soldiers required medical attention while 21 workers with the catering contractor who supplied the food were detained, Manisa chief prosecutor Akif Celalettin Simsek said in a statement
Defense Minister Fikri Işık and Commander of Turkish Land Forces Gen. Zeki Çolak arrived in Manisa to oversee the issue. Speaking to reporters after visiting soldiers at the hospital, Işık said that out of 590 soldiers, 372 were transferred to hospitals while the others were treated inside the military compound. 72 soldiers remained in hospitals and none of them are in critical condition, Işık said.
Main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) Manisa deputy Tur Yıldız Biçer also shared information regarding the incident on her Twitter account, claiming that the number of affected soldiers had reached 3,000 and that they had eaten chicken meat at dinner in the barracks.
“Here is one of the largest units with 6,000 soldiers. I can say that 3,000 were affected and tents on the premises of the barracks were set up. There are some in critical condition,” she said on a live stream video on her social account.
On May 23, more than 1,000 soldiers were hospitalized in the same military compound after the dinner and one died.
