The head of the Hanover clinic for Gastroenterology, Hepatology, and Endocrinology, Michael Manns, told the DPA news agency that five eastern European migrants had been presented for treatment at the hospital after eating a poisonous mushroom commonly known as the death cap. Manns explained that eating death cap mushrooms severely damages the liver and can result in death.

While symptoms of mushroom include vomiting and diarrhea it is unclear to what extent the five migrants had suffered poisoning. The death cap mushroom, also known by its Latin name, Amanita phalloides, reportedly resembles an edible mushroom commonly found in Eastern Europe.

A report from the US' Centers for Disease Control and Prevention last month said that death cap mushrooms would flourish after early rainfall followed by warmer weather – a weather pattern observed in central Europe in recent days.

Risky business: foraging for mushrooms

Last year, 30 asylum seekers in total were treated at that hospital in Hanover alone after eating the death cap mushrooms. Other cases of such inadvertent mushroom poisonings have also been on the rise since the onset of the refugee crisis in 2015.

Migrants with limited means have been seen foraging for food in nature - including mushrooms - on their journeys. But experts warn that many mushrooms can look alike but have different properties.

Apps designed to identify poisonous mushrooms are also not reliable and consistent enough to dare to take the risk, according to various news reports.