E.coli outbreak: '1,200 affected'
EU agriculture ministers are struggling to come to terms with a deadly bacteria outbreak suspected of stemming from contaminated cucumbers that has reportedly killed 14 people in Germany.
More than two weeks after the food poisoning outbreak was first reported in northern Germany, the number of confirmed and suspected cases has reached 1,200, according to media reports.
Belgium and Russia banned the import of vegetables from Spain, believed to be the source of at least some of the contaminated cucumbers.
The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control has described the outbreak of the strain of E. coli as "one of the largest worldwide and the largest ever reported in Germany".
