Six heroin addicts have died in the last week in Dublin after using a suspected contaminated batch of the drug, it emerged today.
Officers at the Garda National Drug Unit issued a warning to all users in the capital who were feeling unwell to attend hospital.
The deaths of the men and women in their 20s and 30s occurred in three city hospitals - four at the Mater, one at St Vincent's and one in Beaumont - and post mortem examinations have been carried out on the bodies.
But gardai are awaiting results of toxicology tests to determine if the users may have been poisoned by bad heroin.
The six who died lived in various parts of the city and were brought to casualty at different times.
