Sjoerd Marijne, the Indian women’s hockey coach, with the team during the recent tour of Argentina.
| Photo Credit: x@thehockeyindia

Sydney:

A New Zealand charity apologised on Wednesday for distributing dozens of pineapple-flavoured candies that were found to be laced with potentially lethal amounts of methamphetamine.

The Auckland City Mission, that donates parcels of essentials to New Zealanders who cannot afford food, said it first became aware of the issue on Tuesday afternoon when some recipients complained about the foul-tasting candies.

Three people – a child, a teenager and a charity worker – sought medical treatment after tasting the boiled sweets, though none are currently in hospital, Detective Inspector Glenn Baldwin from Auckland police told reporters.

There was no suggestion of wrongdoing by the charity, he added.

“To say we are devastated is an understatement,” the Mission said in a statement.

The candy, which was donated by an unknown member of the public, was tested by the New Zealand Drug Foundation charity, which found they contained a potentially lethal 3 grams (0.1 oz)of methamphetamine.

“A common dose to swallow is between 10-25mg, so this contaminated lolly contained up to 300 doses,” said foundation Executive Director Sarah Helm.

Police believed the candies were the by product of an international drug trafficking operation and have called for them to be handed them over to the authorities. They are also investigating how the candies entered the country, Baldwin said.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Fifty people were injured on board a Boeing 787-9 flight from Sydney to Auckland after the plane suddenly “dropped” mid-air, according to Forbes. The flight was operated by Chilean airline Latam and the plane experienced a technical issue, which caused “strong movement” on board the flight, the outlet further said. Some passengers and crew members were “thrown into the roof” on the plane as it suddenly lost altitude. Ten of the injured – seven passengers and three crew members – were hospitalised in a serious condition.

According to FlightAware, the affected LA800 flight landed successfully in Auckland at 4:26 pm local time.

“Flight LA800, operating the Sydney-Auckland route today, had a technical event during the flight which caused a strong movement,” Latam said in a statement posted by CNN.

However, the airline did not elaborate on what the technical event was.

Jacinto, a passenger on board the flight, told CNN affiliate RNZ that there was a “mid-air drop.”

“People flew through the cabin. People got pretty injured,” he added.

The man also said that many passengers were not wearing their seatbelts at the time of the sudden drop.

Another passenger named Valentina, said that the plane “just stopped,” and that “people were flying around.”

“Blood was on the ceiling, people flew and broke the ceiling of the plane,” she said.

Latam Airlines is Chile’s flagship carrier and stops regularly in Auckland en route to Santiago.

Boeing has been at the centre of the storm after malfunction on its planes, including the blowing out of a Boeing 737-9 door at 16,000 feet.