Child finds needle in banana in school lunchbox
A child has found a needle inside a banana that was packed in their school lunch box.
The student at St Paul’s Primary School in Gateshead, Newcastle found the needle on Wednesday morning.
The child spotted the metal before consuming the banana and alerted teachers who called the police.
“This morning a student at a school called discovered a needle in a banana,” John Kingsley-Jones, Head of Communications for the Catholic Diocese of Maitland Newcastle, confirmed to Yahoo7.
“As soon as the school found out the local police came to the school to investigate.”
Lake Macquarie police confirmed they are investigating the incident but declined to provide further details.
“We are investigating an incident that was reported to us from a primary school today,” a spokesman for the Lake Macquarie Police District told Yahoo7 on Wednesday.
Mr Kingsley-Jones confirmed that local police spoke to the child and collected the banana and needle on Wednesday.
Following the incident, the school principal notified parents and advised them to be vigilant when packing fruit for their children.
The message contained information urging parents to be super careful about making sure they are cutting up the fruits, Mr Kingsley-Jones said.
“The safety of these students is our number one priority,” he added.
It comes after a 62-year-old woman was issued a caution after a police investigation into a incident where a metal object was reportedly found inside a banana at a supermarket in Maryborough, Queensland.
Queensland Police released a statement on Monday evening confirming that the woman had been referred to “appropriate support services” and they were treating it as an isolated incident.
As the needles in fruit crisis deepens, Prime Minister Scott Morrison wants the maximum penalty for food contamination increased from 10 to 15 years in prison.
“This is a shocking and cowardly thing for this individual and others who have jumped onto the bandwagon here to have engaged in,” Mr Morrison told reporters in Canberra on Wednesday.
The crackdown continues, as a young boy has been arrested after admitting to putting needles in strawberries.
On Wednesday, NSW Acting Assistant Commissioner Stuart Smith said detectives had already arrested one young boy over behaviour that “could be a prank”.
