Woman Dies of Poisoning After Eating Sardines at French Bar

Sardines in a restaurant in France (File- AFP)
Sardines in a restaurant in France (File- AFP)
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Woman Dies of Poisoning After Eating Sardines at French Bar

Sardines in a restaurant in France (File- AFP)
Sardines in a restaurant in France (File- AFP)

A woman died in France from botulism after eating sardines at a restaurant last week and 12 other people were in treatment for the rare condition, health officials said Wednesday.

Botulism is a serious neurological illness typically brought on by eating food that has been improperly preserved.

The restaurant in Bordeaux, southwestern France, had preserved the sardines itself, the DGS health authority said late Tuesday.

The nationality of the dead woman, aged 32, has not yet been determined, a source close to the case said, AFP reported.

A doctor at the Pellegrin hospital in Bordeaux, Benjamin Clouzeau, said 12 more people were still receiving emergency treatment early Wednesday. Five of them were on respiratory support.

The group included American, Irish and Canadian nationals, he said.

A German national travelled home for treatment, as did a resident of Barcelona, Spain, the doctor said.

All of them had eaten at the restaurant, the "Tchin Tchin Wine Bar" in Bordeaux, between September 4 and 10 when there are typically large numbers of tourists in the town, famous for its wine and food.

They all ate sardines that had been stored by the restaurant owner himself in jars, the DGS said.

Botulism is deadly in five to 10 percent of cases because of a toxin generated by clostridium botulinum bacteria that can appear when preserved food is insufficiently sterilised.

Authorities were still running tests at the restaurant, the DGS said, adding it could not rule out the emergence of further cases of botulism which has an incubation period of up to several days.

It can cause muscle paralysis lasting several weeks, with the most immediate danger stemming from affected respiratory muscles.

Local newspaper Sud-Ouest quoted the restaurant owner as saying that he had thrown out some of the jars containing sardines because of a "strong smell" emanating from the containers when he opened them.

But others "appeared in good condition and were served up to customers", he said.



New Searches Underway in Portugal Near Where Madeleine McCann Disappeared in 2007

 A Portuguese official during a search operation in a vast area between the cities of Lagos and Praia da Luz for Madeleine McCann, in Lagos, Portugal, 03 June 2025. (EPA)
A Portuguese official during a search operation in a vast area between the cities of Lagos and Praia da Luz for Madeleine McCann, in Lagos, Portugal, 03 June 2025. (EPA)
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New Searches Underway in Portugal Near Where Madeleine McCann Disappeared in 2007

 A Portuguese official during a search operation in a vast area between the cities of Lagos and Praia da Luz for Madeleine McCann, in Lagos, Portugal, 03 June 2025. (EPA)
A Portuguese official during a search operation in a vast area between the cities of Lagos and Praia da Luz for Madeleine McCann, in Lagos, Portugal, 03 June 2025. (EPA)

Police investigating the disappearance of British toddler Madeleine McCann searched near an abandoned rural building in southern Portugal on Tuesday as they launched fresh probes near the holiday resort where she was last seen 18 years ago.

The case received worldwide interest for several years, with reports of sightings of McCann occurring as far away as Australia, while books and television documentaries were produced about her disappearance.

German investigators and Portuguese police officers and firefighters were searching in the countryside several miles from the Praia da Luz resort, where the 3-year-old disappeared from her bed while on vacation with her family on May 3, 2007.

The teams were seen using pickaxes, shovels and chainsaws to clear dense vegetation and dig near a derelict building. Firefighters pumped water out of a well.

Almost two decades on, investigators in the UK, Portugal and Germany are still piecing together what happened on the night the toddler disappeared. She was in the same room as her brother and sister — 2-year-old twins — while their parents, Kate and Gerry, had dinner with friends outside.

Portuguese police said Monday that detectives were acting on a request from a German public prosecutor as they carry out “a broad range” of searches this week in the area of Lagos, in southern Portugal.

The main suspect is a German national identified by media as Christian Brueckner, who is currently serving a seven-year prison sentence in Germany for raping a 72-year-old woman in Portugal in 2005.

He is under investigation on suspicion of murder in the McCann case but hasn’t been charged. He spent many years in Portugal, including in Praia da Luz, around the time of the child’s disappearance. Brueckner has denied any involvement.

The last time police resumed searches in the case was in 2023, when detectives from the three countries took part in an operation searching near a dam and a reservoir about 50 kilometers (30 miles) from the resort.

McCann's family marked the 18th anniversary of her disappearance last month, and expressed their determination to keep searching.