Mass overdose at US park, one arrested

New York, August 16

Over 40 individuals had overdosed in a Connecticut park in US on a drug suspected of being laced with an opioid. A suspect has been taken into custody, police said.

There have been no fatalities reported over the incident, but some of the individuals are in critical condition, the BBC reported.

Police arrested the man on Wednesday who is suspected of being connected to the overdoses first reported near the Yale University on Tuesday night, NBC News Connecticut reported.

It is believed they may have taken doses of K2 -- a synthetic drug marketed as being similar to marijuana. Dr Kathryn Hawk, an Emergency Department physician at Yale New Have Hospital, said the drug was laced with fentanyl, but police were yet to confirm, the BBC report said.

The incident follows a new report that found a record 72,000 Americans died of overdoses in 2017. — IANS