Dozens of girls were poisoned on Saturday in several schools in Iran, a country that has been rocked by such mysterious cases for more than four months, AFP and Agerpres reported.citing local media.

Local girls from KumuPhoto: Morteza Nikoubazl/NurPhoto/Shutterstock Editorial/Profimedia

Since late November, many schools attended by mostly girls have been affected by gas or toxic poisoning, causing nausea and fainting, sometimes resulting in hospitalization.

The head of the national commission investigating these cases, MP Hamidreza Kazemi, said the final report would be released “within two weeks.”

At least 60 female students were poisoned (Saturday) at a girls’ school in Haftkel, Khuzestan province (southwest), Iribnews news agency reported, citing a local official.

Also, in “five schools of Ardbil, in the north-west” of the country, girls were poisoned, who had “symptoms of anxiety, difficulty breathing and headaches”.

In Urmia, the capital of West (Northwest) Azerbaijan province, an “unspecified number” of primary school students were injured “due to a gas leak,” the Ilna news agency reported without further details.

Thousands of schoolgirls were poisoned

An official balance sheet on March 7 indicated that “more than 5,000 female students” were under the influence of alcohol in more than 230 schools in 25 provinces out of a total of 31.

The poisonings stopped in early March after the announcement of about 100 arrests, but three weeks later they reappeared.

Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on March 6 called for “severe punishments,” up to the death penalty, for those found guilty of the poisonings.

The cases began two months after the start of a protest movement sparked by the September 16 death of a young Kurdish woman, Mahsa Amini, who was arrested by the morality police, who accused her of violating the Islamic Republic’s strict dress code.

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