Six young people hospitalized after ecstasy use at Brabant youth institution

Six young people were hospitalized on Sunday evening after they used ecstasy at youth care institution De La Salle in Boxtel. "One of them is in bad shape", the Oost-Brabant police said on Twitter.

Ambulances were deployed to the youth care institution at around 7:30 p.m. when the first of the group of young people became unwell. They were rushed to a hospital in the area. The police are investigating where they got the drugs.

De La Salle is a treatment center for kids and young people with mild intellectual disabilities, combined with serious behavioral problems or psychiatric problems, according to newspaper AD. The children, teenagers and young people in the center's care are between the ages of 6 and 23 years.

The Boxtel institution is taking this incident very seriously, spokesperson Mehlika Schopen said to the newspaper. "We suspect that the young people used ecstasy brought in by external dealers", she said. "We are going to investigate extensively how this could have happened. Who are these dealers, how were contacts established, are there more pills within our walls, and are more young people using them?"