Page 12 - IAV Digital Magazine #501

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Post office Workers Hospitalized Over Package Containing Smelly Fruit
By N'Dea Yancey- Bragg
A German post office was forced to evacuate and six workers were taken to the hos- pital due to a sus- picious, pungent package that turned out to con- tain a particularly smelly fruit.
About 60 people were cleared from the post office in Schweinfurt on Saturday and 12 workers were treated for nau- sea, local media reported. Six ambulances, five first-responder cars, two emer- gency vehicles and three different fire departments were involved in the incident, Schweinfurt police said in a state- ment given to
CNN.
"Due to the unknown content, it was initially unclear whether the suspect pack- age posed a greater risk," the statement said.
Workers feared the package was releasing a harm-
ful gas, but care- ful examination revealed the par- cel contained four Thai durian fruits, Bayerischer Rundfunk report- ed.
The fruits were sent to a 50-year- old resident by a friend in Nuremberg,
according to the outlet.
Durians are a divisive fruit from Asia and known for their strong aroma. To some, the fruits have a pleasant smell and taste, but oth- ers get more of a scent of "turpen- tine and onions,
garnished with a gym sock," food writer Richard Sterling once wrote, according to Smithsonian m agazine.
A mixture of chemicals in the fruit creates its unique scent, according
to Smithsonian. In
Singapore, the fruit is banned on some trains.
This is not the first time the duri- an has caused problems in public places.
Students at the University of Canberra were evacuated last May after a sus- pected gas leak, only to realise a durian caused the smell, a state- ment on the library's Facebook page read. About 550 people were forced to leave the building in less than six min- utes.
In 2018, an Indonesian flight was delayed after passengers com- plained of a foul smell from the fruit.
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