Woman dies after eating mushrooms

A woman has died and another is in hospital on the Isle of Wight after apparently eating mushrooms.

Police are investigating the death of the woman, in her 40s, after they were called to a house in Carisbrooke High Street, Newport, at on Tuesday morning.

Another woman in her 20s, who told police they had picked and eaten mushrooms, was taken to St Mary's Hospital, in Newport.

The death is not being treated as suspicious.

In the morning police closed the 22-acre Ventnor Botanic Gardens, where the mushrooms were picked, according to the woman who was taken ill.

Officers have been told these mushrooms have not been passed on to any other people, but I'm appealing to anyone who picks wild mushrooms without expert knowledge not to eat them Insp Colin Hall, Hampshire Police

Police said she had visited the gardens with her husband on Sunday.

The mushrooms were eaten by both women sometime on Monday.

Insp Colin Hall, of Hampshire and Isle of Wight Police, said: "The cause of the first woman's death, and the second woman's illness, have not been confirmed yet, but officers are concerned about a possible link with the picking and eating of wild mushrooms.

"Officers have been told these mushrooms have not been passed on to any other people, but I'm appealing to anyone who picks wild mushrooms without expert knowledge not to eat them."

The victim, who has not been identified, was pronounced dead at the address in Carisbrooke Road after officers were called at 0712 BST.

At 0813 BST, officers were called to an address in Gunville Road, Newport, when they attended to the second woman and recovered a quantity of wild mushrooms.

The mushrooms are being examined to confirm their identities and where they are from.

A spokesman for St Mary's Hospital in Newport, said the second woman was "conscious and stable".