Three suspects have been arrested in Uzbekistan's eastern Andijon region after a bad batch of strawberry ice cream put nearly 200 people in the hospital, local police sources have told RFE/RL.
Law enforcement officials in the Shahrihon District said that a preliminary investigation indicated that the source of the tainted ice cream was a cafe in downtown Shahrihon, the district center.
They said the operations of all ice cream shops in the town have been suspended.
The precise reason for the sickness is not yet known.
A regional health official told RFE/RL that 182 people were in intensive care wards at hospitals around the region. Five of the patients are in "very serious condition," he said.
Local residents said hundreds of people were poisoned and there were rumors of several deaths, but the health official said none of the hospitalized patients had died.