Business dispute suspected in Russia gas attack
`A gas attack in a home-supply store on one of the busiest shopping days of the year sickened scores of people yesterday in an incident that police called likely motivated by a commercial dispute or blackmail attempt.
Boxes containing timers wired to glass vials were discovered at the attack scene and three other stores in the same chain in Russia’s second-largest city.
Seventy-eight people sought medical care: 66 were briefly hospitalized and sent home, officials said. Police said the store where the people were sickened hadn’t opened for the day and all those affected were employees or police, ITAR-Tass news agency reported. [..]
St. Petersburg police spokesman Vyacheslav Stepchenko said the gas appeared to be methyl mercaptan, which smells like rotten cabbage and is both naturally occurring and manufactured for use in plastics and pesticides. It rarely has long-lasting effects.’
One of the researchers at work used to use a lot of mercaptans. They smell fucken horrible. Maybe the worst things I’ve ever smelt.
