The Straits Times reports more than 40 military staff and recruits at an academy in central Switzerland were taken to hospital on Thursday (July 4) after they suddenly fell violently ill, the government said.

In a statement, the Swiss defence department said that on Thursday afternoon, 43 recruits and members of the Jassbach academy in Linden, in Bern Canton, suddenly suffered from acute gastrointestinal problems, with diarrhoea and vomiting.