PARIS, November 22. /TASS/. French police are looking into the death of an 80-year-old resident of a Lyon suburb who, according to all accounts, was poisoned by a banned insecticide, Le Parisien reported.
The victim’s son, Alain, said he found his father and brother, 63, in grave condition when he came to visit them in their flat on October 20. While the younger man was totally haggard with his eyes and mouth open, Alain’s father had difficulty breathing as he was lying on the floor. Both were taken to hospital, but only Alain’s brother survived.
According to reports, the deceased tried to use a Sniper brand product, containing a bug killer that is officially banned for sale in France, against bedbugs. Before 2021, as many as 36 poisonings were reported in the country after use against bedbugs, the newspaper said.
After the two elderly men were hospitalized, doctors confirmed to Alain that said insecticide might have played a role, though they did not list this as the official cause of death. Alain turned to the police where a probe is now underway into whether the Sniper product might have caused the death, given that his father had previously suffered two strokes and had a heart problem.
Bedbugs have become a hot topic among the public and in the media in France in the past few weeks. Emmanuel Gregoire, first deputy mayor of Paris, has called for drafting a government plan for fighting the pests, while French Health Minister Aurelien Rousseau urged the population to stop panicking over the spread of bedbugs. Another senior French official, Clement Beaune, who serves as Minister of Transport, refuted reports about the bugs infesting public transportation in the country.