A groom and five guests have mysteriously died after attending a wedding in Nigeria, while the bride and seven others are being treated in hospital.
Obinna Dieke, 33, and his wife Nebechi were married on Friday at a ceremony attended by their friends and family near the city of Enugu, southern Nigeria.
But the next morning, 14 of the guests, including the newly married couple, were found unconscious at the family home with foamy discharge around their mouths, local police said.
The victims were rushed to hospital but Obinna and five others were pronounced dead. Nebechi and seven other guests are now being treated in hospital.
It is not known what caused the deaths, but locals have suggested it was either food poisoning or carbon dioxide poisoning from a power generator that they had brought inside their home.
Police said that an autopsy will be conducted on the six victims to determine the cause of deaths.
The newly married couple and their guests had returned to their family home after the wedding for a party.
Police spokesman Daniel Ndukwe told the Nigerian newspaper Premium Times that when none of the wedding guests emerged from the house the next day, neighbours broke down the front door.
They found the guests unconscious with foamy discharge coming from their mouths.
‘They were immediately moved to the hospital, where six of them were confirmed dead and deposited in the mortuary for preservation and autopsy, while the others are responding to treatment,’ Ndukwe said.
A community leader said Obinnaa, Nebechi and their wedding guests had gone back to their family home for a party on the night before they were found dead.
The leader, who has not been named, said that he believes that they died from carbon monoxide poisoning from a portable power generator that they had brought inside because it was raining.
Portable generators generate deadly carbon monoxide gas and therefore must never be used indoors or placed too close to a house.
‘It was raining and there was a generator outside,’ the community leader said.
‘They brought the generator inside the corridor. So, since they were drinking and didn’t know the implication of bringing the generator in the corridor, and then they slept,’ he added.
‘I think maybe carbon monoxide filled the whole room. It was people that went there to greet them in the morning that broke the door and saw them all unconscious,’ he said.
The police have launched an investigation into the incident.
Source: Daily Mail
