54 sickened by toxic vomit at Japanese hospital

TOKYO, Japan (CNN) - Fifty-four people were sickened by toxic fumes at a hospital in southern Japan Wednesday when a man vomited after drinking pesticide to commit suicide.

An official with Red Cross Hospital in Kumamoto said the 34-year-old man later died while the people who were sickened were "progressing favorably."

Eleven of the 54 people who were sickened were doctors; another 20 were staffers at the hospital in the city of Kumamoto.

The liquid pesticide the man consumed was later identified as chloropicrin, which was used to produce tear gas during World War I and induces tears and vomiting.