Tanked scientist loses deadly poisons after night on the town

Police have launched a frantic search for three bottles of potentially deadly poison lost after a Shimonoseki Mitsui Chemicals official who had been carrying them went out for a night on the town and got so drunk he can't remember what he did with them, police said.

About 50 officers are searching for the three 500-milliliter bottles of liquefied hydrogen fluoride, which the Poisonous and Deleterious Substances Control Law designates as being a toxic substance.

There has been a fatality reported after a person swallowed a spoonful of hydrogen fluoride solution with a concentration of 9 percent, but the missing substance, to be used to clean semiconductors, has a concentration of 10 percent and would probably prove fatal if consumed.

"It's extremely dangerous," a police spokesman said. "If you find it, let us know immediately."

Shimonoseki Mitsui Chemicals refused to comment on the case.

"It's still being investigated," a company spokesman said.

Police said the employee had been carrying the three bottles as a sample he received from a trading partner for research purposes during a meeting Thursday. But the man went out drinking on Thursday night. He returned home by taxi, but at about 6 a.m. Friday, he realized the deadly substance was no longer in the bag he had been carrying it around in and at 9 a.m., he reported the loss to the police.