A mayor in Poland has appealed for organ donors after two children evacuated from Afghanistan to Poland became seriously ill after eating poisonous mushrooms.
"We are all moved by the news of the accidental mushroom poisoning," Artur Tusinski, mayor of Podkowa Lesna near the Polish capital, Warsaw, wrote on Facebook on August 30.
The children are being treated at a hospital in Warsaw, where doctors have determined they will need liver transplants.
The news portal OKO.press reported that their father, an accountant, worked for several years for the British Army.
During the Taliban's rapid offensive across Afghanistan this month, the family was evacuated by the Polish military at Britain's request.
According to the report by OKO.press, the 12-member family arrived in Warsaw on August 23 and went foraging in the woods outside their migrant center.
It said the two children are aged 6 and 8, adding that a 17-year-old sibling had also fallen ill but her condition had improved.
Jakub Dudziak, a spokesman for the Office for Foreigners, which runs migrant centers in Poland, denied the children were forced to forage for mushrooms because they weren't being fed enough.
He said the evacuees were being provided "with three meals a day, consisting of varied ingredients with appropriate calorific value, including dairy products, meat, vegetables, fruit, and drinks."
"In connection with this unfortunate accident, employees of centers for foreigners will sensitize Afghan citizens not to consume products of unknown origin," he added.
Dudziak said a total of five people had asked for medical assistance at the facility complaining of stomach problems, but they had not initially said they had eaten mushrooms.
Poland completed its evacuation mission last week after transporting more than 1,300 people from Kabul.
Most of the evacuees will stay in Poland after completing compulsory quarantine but others who were evacuated by Polish troops on behalf of third countries or international organizations will go elsewhere.