Free Sandwiches May Have Contained Rat Poison

Twenty employees of a company in Germany have been hospitalised in case sandwiches they were given as a gift turn out to have been poisoned.

The suspicious sandwiches were left on the doorstep of a company near the northwestern town of Vechta on Tuesday with a note saying they were a present.

Police say 25 employees of the company in Steinfeld, Lower Saxony, ate the sandwiches before someone noticed a strange substance on them.

The emergency services were called and a fleet of ambulances took those who had eaten the sandwiches for urgent treatment.

The company and the identity of those who ate them has not been revealed.

Local reports in Germany say the substance is suspected to be rat poison.

Police said those placed in hospital were taken in as a precaution. They are in intensive care, according to local media.

Area force spokesman Klaus Koesterke said Wednesday that so far none of those hospitalised has shown symptoms of poisoning.

But officials said they are not excluding the possibility of a slow-acting poison.

Uneaten samples of the sandwiches have been sent to a Berlin laboratory for tests.

Officers have also appealed for anyone else who may have eaten the sandwiches to come forward.

It has also not been revealed why the employees thought the rolls were safe to eat.