Utrecht students possibly drugged on ski trip to France

Utrecht first-year students' ski trip to Risoul in France was cut short on Thursday due to suspicions that some of them had been drugged. The boards of the involved student associations, the Utrechtsch Studenten Corps and the Utrechtsche Vrouwen Studenten Vereeniging (U.V.S.V.), announced this in a letter to their members. Nine students became unwell on the trip. Five had to be hospitalized.

The group of hundreds of students left for Risoul last week Friday for a week-long skiing holiday. Five students became unwell in the night from Tuesday to Wednesday. They all had the same symptoms: their legs giving in spontaneously, alternating laughing and crying, their eyes rolling, nausea, panic attacks, and memory loss. Three of them had to go to the hospital. They were doing well the next morning, under the circumstances. They couldn't remember anything about the incident.

Because the student associations suspected that the students had unwittingly ingested drugs, they took measures. Only "closed drinks" were served, and the catering facility where the students had become unwell was closed. Despite this, another four students became ill with the same symptoms in the night from Wednesday to Thursday. Two had to go to the hospital. Everyone is now doing well under the circumstances. The hospitalized students were tested for substances that they may have ingested. The test results are expected in the coming days.

Although it is not yet certain that the students were drugged, the associations decided to cut the ski trip short for the students' safety. The first buses left for the Netherlands on Thursday evening. The remaining students will head home on Friday.