Two men have been arrested in connection with a spate of spiking incidents in Nottingham.
Nottinghamshire Police said the men, aged 18 and 19, were arrested after receiving information from a member of the public on Wednesday, following a general appeal for help from a senior officer.
The force said both had been arrested “on suspicion of conspiracy to administer poison with intent to injure, annoy or aggrieve”, and they remain in police custody.
The force has received 15 reports of spiking where the victims believe they were injected with a needle.
It said there had also been 32 reports of people being spiked by having their drink contaminated since 4 September.
The arrests are not being linked to any specific allegation of spiking by a needle, or contamination of a drink.
Earlier, Lincolnshire Police said it had arrested a 35-year-old man at 3am on Friday in connection with an attempted drink-spiking at a nightclub in Lincoln.
The suspected offence “doesn’t involve a needle”, the force said.
It came as calls were growing today for more action to combat the reported spikings ‘epidemic’ in nightclubs.
A petition calling for all venues to be legally required to search all customers on arrival set up in the wake of reports of women being spiked with needles in UK nightclubs passed 160,000 signatures.
While a Girls Night In campaign planning a national boycott of nightclubs was growing in support.
Some venues are already taking action. Some universities are enforcing random bag searches and testing unattended drinks on campus venues.
In Leeds, nightclubs Pryzm and HiFi said they would increase searches and hand out drinks covers.
Several police forces are investigating alleged incidents and one man in his 20s has been arrested by Nottinghamshire Police, which said on Thursday it was investigating 12 reports of individuals spiked by needles.
Following reports of incidents across the country, Home Secretary Priti Patel has asked police forces to assess the scale of the problem.
A 27-year-old man has claimed a woman spiked him with a needle in a nightclub in south east London.
