Public prosecutor confirms three dead in drug lab in Lille
The Antwerp public prosecutor's office confirmed that three fatalities have occurred in an active drug lab that was discovered in Poederlee (Lille) on Wednesday. A fourth victim was resuscitated and taken to hospital. The public prosecutor's office has requested an investigating judge.
The public prosecutor's office has provisionally classified the case as one involving the combined use of psychotropic substances resulting in death. The identities of the victims have not yet been released, nor is the exact cause of death yet known.
In addition to the police, fire brigade and emergency medical services, the judicial laboratory, the medical examiner and the Clan Lab Response Unit (CRU) of the police also arrived on site, as is usual at a drug lab.
"When you hear that it is a drug lab and gases were used, with a gas station next to the building, you can't imagine what else an explosion could have caused," says Mayor Marleen Peeters (N-VA). "We are shocked as a municipal council. I saw the flashing lights this morning, and you immediately think of a serious traffic accident. But we did not see this coming."
This is not the first time that deaths have occurred in a Belgian drug lab. A few years ago, three people were found dead in a building in Hechtel-Eksel (Limburg). The victims had died due to the toxic fumes released during the production of synthetic drugs. Drug labs are routinely found and dismantled in the area of Belgium bordering the Netherlands.
#FlandersNewsService | ©BELGA PHOTO KRISTOF VAN ACCOM
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