US Staffer Suffers Brain Injury After 'sound' Incident In China

Washington, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 23rd May, 2018 ) :A US government employee in China suffered brain trauma linked to "abnormal sounds" that resembled the still-unexplained injuries that befell US and Canadian diplomats in Cuba last year, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Wednesday.

US and Chinese authorities are investigating after the unnamed employee, who was assigned to the southern city of Guangzhou, was diagnosed with mild traumatic brain injury (MTBI). The US embassy in Beijing issued a health alert Wednesday over the incident, while saying it does not know what caused the symptoms or of any similar situations in the country.

Last year 24 US diplomats and their family members in Cuba fell victim to a mysterious attack that left them with injuries resembling brain trauma.

Ten Canadian diplomats and their relatives also suffered a strange illness.

Both countries scaled back their diplomatic presence on the Caribbean island due to the problem, which continues to baffle investigators and has strained US diplomatic relations with Havana. "The medical indications are very similar and entirely consistent with the medical indications that have taken place to Americans working in Cuba," Pompeo said in Washington.

"We are working to figure out what took place both in Havana and now in China as well," he said.