Woman becomes second person to die after eating ‘toxic broccoli’ sandwich as 17 hospitalised

At least 17 people have been hospitalised after eating the deadly sandwiches from a food truck in the town of Diamante in Calabria.

Tamara D’Acunto, 45, became the second person to die after eating the sandwich, which contained turnip greens.

Luigi Di Sarno, 52, was the first person to be pronounced dead after purchasing the fatal sandwich.

Read more: Over-50s donated more organs than ever before in the last year

His family, including two 17-year-olds and two women in their 40s, were also hospitalised after eating the poisoned panini.

An 11-year-old boy who was at the same festival and ate a taco with guacamole is in stable condition at a hospital in Rome.

In all, 17 people have been rushed to hospital since last Thursday, all showing signs of botulism - an illness linked to turnip greens.

Authorities are investigating the outbreak and are advising people to exercise caution when buying ‘risky’ food and not to eat canned or jarred products where the safety lid has popped up, indicating the container was not properly sealed.

Police have launched an investigation into nine people, including the owner and employees of the food truck.

The truck has been closed and seized by police.

Jars of the broccoli-like vegetable have also been confiscated by health officials.

Botulism is linked to toxins produced by Clostridium botulinum bacteria and can be life-threatening for around 10 per cent of people.