NEWS RELEASES | Witnesses at Convention in Angola Overcome by Toxic Fumes

[The Librarian]

Source

[The Librarian]

Reported last week here:

 

[Queen Esther]

I  JUST  ALSO  SEEN  BY  jw.org !

AUGUST 29, 2017
ANGOLA
Witnesses at Convention in Angola Overcome by Toxic Fumes

On Friday morning, August 25, 2017, during a convention being held at the Viana Assembly Hall of Jehovah’s Witnesses in Luanda, Angola, 405 attendees were rendered unconscious when assailants released toxic gas in the main auditorium and separate restroom facilities. Fortunately, the gas was not lethal and no one was killed. The victims were taken to local hospitals and most were treated and released within a few hours. The incident is being investigated by the local authorities; three men were arrested and taken into police custody on Friday afternoon.

The branch office in Luanda reports that all of the victims are recovering well. It was noted that those in attendance did not panic and worked together to care for the injured. In cooperation with recommendations from the local police, the Friday afternoon session of the convention was canceled. However, the convention resumed successfully without major incident on Saturday, August 26, and Sunday, August 27. Attendance reached a peak of over 12,000, and 188 were baptized as Jehovah’s Witnesses.

Media Contacts:

International: David A. Semonian, Office of Public Information, +1-845-524-3000

Angola: Todd Peckham, +244-923-166-760

[John Houston]

So is this fake news?

[JW Insider]

JW.ORG is treating it as real news, so I'd say it's real.

https://www.jw.org/en/news/releases/by-region/angola/toxic-gas-20170829/

[John Houston]

So did it take jw.org to validate it?

[JW Insider]

2 hours ago, John Houston said:

So did it take jw.org to validate it?

Not for me. For some reason, I thought this story was mostly true, right away. Not sure why you are asking, though. I'm usually very skeptical of such reports, but I jumped right in and accepted this one as likely true, based primarily on the picture of a sister who had fainted, and a few people standing nearby. This wasn't the usual set-up for a fake story. It didn't try to attach itself to something we already knew was partly true, or a famous event or person, so it didn't seem fake based on the usual reasons people create fake stories. So that's why I responded as soon as this was posted 5 days ago over at another place where this was posted https://www.theworldnewsmedia.org/topic/43655-jws-attacked-with-poison-gas-at-a-convention-400-affected/

Naturally, I'm not sure that the reason given for it makes any sense, but I figured we'd learn more.

On 8/26/2017 at 5:33 PM, JW Insider said:

That is so terrible! Blaming Jehovah's Witnesses for loss in an election in Angola is like calling us extremists in Russia.

Of course, seeing it on jw.org certainly helped to remove some of the questions, because the brothers putting up information on jw.org can get in direct contact with the brothers at the assembly, and they would want as much information as they could get to verify it.