Around 50 underage scouts fall ill with food poisoning at summer camp in Friuli

Mass illness at summer camp

About fifty scouts, all minors, fell ill on Saturday afternoon, 15 August 2026, during a summer camp in Cavazzo Carnico, in the province of Udine, Friuli. The group, described by the German-language outlet 20 Minuten as boys, began suffering severe nausea, vomiting, and cramps shortly after lunch. According to the scout leaders, who spoke to the medical teams on site, the only food that all affected participants had eaten in common was a dish of pasta with tuna and cheese. The camp was being held near the village sports field, where the scouts were spending the Ferragosto holiday weekend. The number of those affected increased progressively over the course of the afternoon, with more participants reporting symptoms as time passed.

Emergency response

The regional emergency operations centre, Sores Fvg, declared a health emergency and dispatched numerous rescue vehicles to the campsite. Eight medical teams from the operations centre were deployed, and a base camp was set up on site where the affected children were examined through triage and treated according to the urgency of their condition, as reported by the local portal Il Messaggero Veneto. The affected scouts were initially treated by emergency teams at the scene, and their preventive transfer to surrounding hospitals was being prepared. According to police, none of the children were in a serious condition.

Investigation underway

The Carabinieri of the Udine provincial command are working with the adult supervisors to determine the cause of the suspected mass food poisoning. The investigation is focusing on the pasta with tuna and cheese served at lunch, which scout leaders identified as the only dish common to all affected members of the group. The symptoms, which include strong nausea and vomiting, are consistent with food poisoning, though the specific cause has not yet been confirmed.

A series of scout incidents in August 2026

The Cavazzo Carnico incident is the latest in a series of emergencies involving scout groups across Italy during the first half of August 2026. On 7 August, 11 underage scouts were trapped by bad weather at altitude in Bagolino, Brescia, and rescued by firefighters. The following day, 8 August, 19 scouts stranded on difficult terrain were evacuated by helicopter at dawn from Monte Cerreto, Salerno. On 11 August, approximately 100 young people were evacuated from a scout camp in Cava d'Ispica, in the province of Ragusa, after the site was invaded by wild boars, under an order signed by mayor Maria Monisteri.

In a separate incident on the Apennines in Parma province, near Bosco di Corniglio at Monte Tavola, a 13-year-old scout fell down a slope during a hike at an altitude of 840 metres. A 61-year-old man died after falling in turn while attempting to rescue the boy. In the first week of August 2026 at Monte Livata, near Rome, a scout group was caught in bad weather and three boys were struck by lightning; one was admitted to the Gemelli hospital in Rome in a pharmacological coma, where he remained hospitalised.