The suspect, whose identity has not been revealed, is said to be 39 years old and was accused of deliberately endangering public safety and attempting to cause serious harm.
One man suspected of poisoning jars of baby food with rat poison, supposedly to blackmail the German manufacturer HiPP, was detained in Austria this Saturday (2)announced the police, cited by the Austrian agency APA.
According to the police department in the Burgenland region, south of Vienna, the suspect is 39 years old. His identity has not been revealed at this time. The police also did not say where he was detained. He was charged with deliberately endangering public safety and attempted serious harm.
German authorities are also investigating this case for suspected extortion against the manufacturer HiPP. According to the Bavarian police, who are coordinating the investigations, five pots of poisoned food were found before being consumed in Austria, the Czech Republic and Slovakia.
A jar purchased at a Spar supermarket in Eisenstadt, the capital of Burgenland, was also found on April 18. THE container contained 15 micrograms of rat poison.
In mid-April, HiPP called for the preventive removal of potentially contaminated containers in Austria. The alerts mainly affect a 190-gram jar of “carrot and potato vegetable puree”.
Another jar, sold at the same Spar branch in Eisenstadt and also suspected of being contaminated with rat poison, has not yet been found.
