Backpackers in hospital after taking travel drug

Nine backpackers, including five from France, were taken to hospital in Perth in varying states of “agitated delirium” after ingesting a travel sickness drug they mistook for cocaine, Australian authorities and reports said.

Two French and one German national remained in hospital yesterday after paramedics were called to a house in the Perth suburb of Victoria Park on Tuesday night. The seven men and two women aged 21-25 took the drug Hyoscine and fell into an unconscious or semi-conscious state, Western Australia Police said.