Twelve children from N2 Gateway in Delft were treated by paramedics after they took sleeping medication one of the laaities had apparently stolen from a parent.
Neighbours say the children, who are between the ages of six and eight, each “took a few” of the powder blue tablets and proceeded to get “drunk” before passing out in the street.
Residents in Tamgak Street, at the new flats being built next to Symphony Village off Symphony Way called paramedics when the children “started acting weirdly” in the road.
One parent said she was concerned because one of the children would not wake up.
Community leader, Caroline Thandi, 45, said she came from Delft Mall and saw the children lying on the street corner.
She says some of the kids were throwing up while some were already flou.
PILLE: Phenergan
“Small children, aged 6 to 8 years, were sprawled out on the ground and the field. They threw up and cried. They could not say what was wrong with them,” she says.
“Some of the people thought it was food poisoning from the food stalls here, but then someone picked up the tablets near to them.
“They were eating Phenergan. One of the children stole it,” the community worker says.
Phenergan is a powerful antihistamine used for severe allergies and side effects include drowsiness and nausea.
Thandi said she called the ambulance immediately and the children were all assisted.
MEDICAL: Delft kids given milk to throw up after eating stolen pills
“The ambulance arrived and all the children were checked. Most of them were given a lot of milk and water to drink, which made them throw up the contents of their stomachs.
“Some parents beat their children till they threw up. The EMS treated them inside the ambulance and all the kids were given the ‘okay’,” Thandi says.
She says they were still trying to establish who the
tablets were stolen from.