Austria: Suspect arrested for placing rat poison in baby food

Austrian police said yesterday Saturday that they arrested a 39-year-old suspect in connection with the case of finding rat poison in baby food packages.

German police announced that five "tampered with" packages of the same type of baby food produced by the German brand "Hipp" were found last month in Austria, the Czech Republic and Slovakia, before consumption. The sixth package, believed to have been in Austria, has not yet been found.

A police spokesperson in Burgenland state in the east of the country, where the package containing the poison was found, said, "Today we succeeded in arresting a suspect, a 39-year-old man," but he refused to provide further details.

The "Kronen Zeitung" newspaper also reported yesterday Saturday that the man was arrested in Salzburg state, which is located on the border with Germany.

The German manufacturer "Hipp" described the incident as an attempt to extort it, and "Hipp" did not mention details about the nature of the extortion.

The Austrian newspaper "Die Presse" reported shortly after the case emerged that an email was sent to "Hipp" in March demanding 2 million euros (2.3 million dollars) within six days, but the company did not notice it until two weeks after the deadline.

"Hipp" stated shortly thereafter that the message was sent to a group email address that is not checked frequently.

Source: "Reuters"