Originally published February 2 2006
Gas attack in St. Petersburg affects 80 shoppers
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor
The Maksidom home-supply chain was the target of an organized gas attack that sent nearly 80 people to the hospital, though Russian officials say none were killed or seriously harmed.
A gas attack in a home-supply store on one of the busiest shopping days of the year sickened scores of people Monday in an incident that police called likely motivated by a commercial dispute or blackmail attempt.
Boxes containing timers wired to glass vials were discovered at the scene of the attack and three other stores in the same chain in Rus-sia's second-largest city.
Po-lice said that the store where the people were sickened had not yet opened for the day, and all of those affected were store employees or police, the ITAR-Tass news agency reported.
Officials with the Maksidom home-supply chain, which sells furnishings, home-repair material and other domestic articles, said they had received recent threats that sales would be disrupted around New Year's, when Russians traditionally give holiday gifts.
Most efforts to undermine competitors' sales in Russia's sharpelbowed free market take the form of negative advertising or damaging rumors.
St. Petersburg police spokesman Vyacheslav Stepchenko said the gas appeared to be methyl mercaptan, which is both naturally occur-ring and manufactured for use in plastics and pesticides.
Chemist Lev Fyodorov, head of an environmental group called For Chemical Safety, said in an NTV television report that the gas rarely has long-lasting effects.
Employees at the branch where people were sickened told officials they heard a sharp noise, like a clap or pop, before people inside smelled a garlicky odor and began to feel ill.
Patients complained of nausea and vomiting --- along with chest pain and high blood pressure that probably resulted from nervous-ness, nurse Alexei Afanasyev said on NTV.
Stepchenko said that a custodian at another branch discovered a suspicious box before opening time and found ampules attached to wires and a timer inside.
The woman inadvertently broke one of the ampules and noticed a repulsive smell but was not sickened, he said.
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