Colombia’s mystery poison powder warning: A man killed his ex-girlfriend in a mall before committing suicide with an unidentified substance that contaminated seven other people.
The incident, which was reported by local authorities on Thursday, happened on Wednesday at a shopping center in the municipality of Sabaneta (north-west), near the city of Medellín.
After months of “harassment” against his ex-girlfriend Maryori Muñoz, 40, Luis Carlos Aguirre, 67, went to the beauty salon she ran at the mall, an area security official, Mariano Atehortua, said.
The victim left work to meet his former companion and “returned two minutes later with a cry for help,” this source said on national radio.
Mall workers, firefighters and police immediately attended to Ms. Muñoz, who died in hospital shortly afterwards.
His corneas and airways were “totally destroyed,” said Mr. Atehortua.
The attacker fled down a fire escape and fell into a toilet, from which he came out again shortly after he had stopped breathing.
The powder used by the attacker, traces of which were found in the toilets, is a “literally deadly” substance that is under investigation, the same source added.
“A fire officer, two police officers (…), two officials from the Las Américas Clinic and two other employees of the shopping center” were intoxicated by the mysterious substance, with nausea, vomiting and headaches, but their condition is now stable.
The mall floors contaminated with the chemical have been closed.
Femicide is widespread in Colombia, where 100 cases were recorded in 2022, according to the forensic agency. The Colombian Observatory on Femicide, a civil society initiative, put the number at 612 for the same year.