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Chinese police detain three after toxic parcels kill one, sicken nine

A man in Shandong province died of methyl fluoroacetate poisoning after his family received shoes that were tainted by the chemical, which had leaked from another parcel transported by the same truck in late November.

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Packages pile up at YTO Express' sorting centre. A parcel transported by the company's truck has leaked toxic chemical.
Mandy Zuoin Shanghai

Police in Shandong province detained three suspects after parcels tainted by a toxic chemical killed one and made nine others sick.

A man in Guangrao county died of methyl fluoroacetate poisoning after his family received shoes that were tainted by the chemical, which had leaked from another parcel transported by the same truck in late November.

His wife, daughter and two other recipients of deliveries in the cities of Shouguang and Jiaozhou became sick after coming into contact with tainted parcels.

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Five workers of the delivery company, a franchise of Shanghai YTO Express, became ill because of the leakage, Guangrao police said.

Guangrao police have detained the franchise's boss, the boss of a drug company who was the recipient of the toxic fluid, and a person from a Hubei chemical plant from which the chemical parcel was sent, police told the South China Morning Post by telephone yesterday.

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According to a statement from the Shandong Provincial Postal Administration on Friday, "a number of recipients" suffered multiple reactions after receiving their parcels, with one of them dying.

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