Refugees from Syria have fallen ill after eating toxic German mushrooms they misidentified as edible, a German hospital says.
The refugees had gathered a mushroom known as death cap in Europe, presumably confusing it with an edible variety found in their homeland, doctors at the Medical University of Hanover said on Wednesday.
The hospital has treated 30 cases of mushroom poisoning over recent days, most of them affecting refugees from Syria.
It has designed a poster to be translated into several languages to warn migrants of the dangers of gathering mushrooms and to be displayed in their accommodation centres.
The death cap, or Amanita phalloidesm, is one of Germany's most toxic mushrooms and held responsible for 90 per cent of fatalities from mushroom poisoning in the country.
The symptoms show only after a delay and include liver failure that necessitates a liver transplant in the worst cases.
Mushrooms are common in northern European parks and woodland at this time of year following early autumn rains.
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