Metal objects turn up in Halloween sweets in Amstetten district

Metal objects have been found in Halloween sweets in the Amstetten district of Lower Austria, ORF reported, prompting the Federal Criminal Police Office to urge parents and guardians to check treats collected by children. Police are due to provide further details on the Amstetten case on Tuesday. Similar finds have also been reported in Upper Austria and Styria.

“The police take these incidents very seriously,” the Federal Criminal Police Office said. Investigations are under way and the office is coordinating inquiries into possible links. So far, however, investigators have found no evidence connecting the reported cases.

In Linz, children collected sweets in the Oed district, and their father later found nails about one centimetre long in them. Some were visible from the outside, while others were embedded in the sweets. Police are investigating on suspicion of intentionally causing grievous bodily harm.

In Vöcklamarkt, in the Vöcklabruck district, a mother reported that her 11-year-old daughter had collected a chocolate bar and a chewy sweet on Saturday evening, each allegedly containing a thick needle. The girl bit into one of the sweets but was not injured.

Four cases were reported in the Styrian districts of Weiz and Leibnitz. No one was injured, police said. Authorities had not initially disclosed what kinds of metal objects were found.

The Federal Criminal Police Office advised parents and guardians to check Halloween sweets before they are eaten, paying particular attention to damaged or tampered-with packaging and foreign objects. Anyone who finds anything suspicious should contact the police immediately.

It remains unclear whether the incidents were influenced by social media or similar cases in Germany. Children there also found needles or other metal objects in Halloween sweets over the weekend. Police reported cases in Thuringia, Baden-Württemberg, Bavaria, Lower Saxony and Rhineland-Palatinate.

In Lower Saxony, a nine-year-old girl was injured on the tongue by a pin just over five centimetres long inside a chocolate bar, according to the dpa news agency. The sweets had been distributed by an unidentified person in Bremervörde, between Bremerhaven and Hamburg.

In Regensburg, a mother found sharp sewing needles, some several centimetres long, in chocolate bars collected by her son, dpa reported. The boy and his friends had been out in the Dörnberg district on Friday evening, police said. Officers are searching for the person responsible and investigating suspected attempted grievous bodily harm.

In Schwarzenbach, in the Neustadt an der Waldnaab district, a 10-year-old girl found a needle about four centimetres long in a chocolate bar. She was not injured, police said, and officers appealed for witnesses to come forward.