UK police investigate claim Wimbledon player was poisoned

UK police investigate claim Wimbledon player was poisoned

Updated Mar. 4, 2020 5:38 p.m. ET

LONDON (AP) British police are investigating allegations that a British player at the Wimbledon tennis tournament was poisoned, after she fell ill with a bacterial infection that can be spread through rat urine.

Gabriella Taylor was playing in the junior tournament when she became sick on July 6.

Her mother, Milena Taylor, says the 18-year-old was hospitalized in intensive care and diagnosed with leptospirosis, a bacterial infection spread by animals.

Milena Taylor told the Daily Telegraph newspaper that ''the bacteria the infection team found is so rare in Britain that we feel this could not have been an accident.''

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London's Metropolitan Police said Thursday that detectives are investigating ''an allegation of poisoning with intent to endanger life.'' The force says no one has been arrested and police are awaiting medical information.

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