Roommate held after Shanghai student dies from poisoning
Medical student had been in hospital for two weeks
A medical student from a top Chinese university in Shanghai died of poisoning on Tuesday, after undergoing intense medical care in hospital for two weeks.
The report said police on Saturday detained a suspect surnamed Lin, who was Huang's schoolmate and dormitory roommate. Earlier, a Fudan student told police that Lin had been conducting experiments on mice using a chemical compound that could inflict symptoms similar to those that Huang experienced.
This prompted police to launch an investigation. They later found that the water in a dispenser in Huang's dormitory contained toxic compounds.
Authorities have not said what chemical compound caused the victim’s death, but the Oriental Morning Post has reported it as N-Nitrosodimethylamine, a toxic substance mainly used for medical research and could inflict serious damage to the human liver. It is not clear whether Lin was experimenting with the same compound.
Huang's father recalled that his son had said the water in his dispenser had a bad taste on the same day he was sickened.