Germans pin E. coli outbreak on Spanish cucumbers

HAMBURG May 26 (Reuters) - German health officials identified imported cucumbers from Spain on Thursday as the source of a two-week E. coli outbreak that has killed at least four people and made more than 100 others ill.

Three of four contaminated cucumbers analysed by the Hamburg Institute for Hygiene and the Environment came from Spain, said the state health minister for Hamburg, Cornelia Pruefer-Storcks.

Cucumbers from the affected producers have been pulled from shelves and officials have told people to stop eating cucumbers. The country of origin of the other cucumber is not yet known.

Escherichia coli, or E. coli, bacteria are normally harmless and are very common, but a few strains can cause severe illness.

The outbreak began two weeks ago in northern Germany and has since spread to eastern and southern regions.

So far four people have died from infections with a strain of E. coli that health officials say is resistant to most antibiotics. It causes severe stomach upsets and leads to vomiting blood and diarrhoea.

At least 140 people in Germany have been diagnosed with hemolytic-uremic syndrome, which is caused by E. coli and can lead to kidney failure.

This is the second consumer food scare in Germany this year. In January highly toxic dioxin was found in egg, poultry and pork products. (Reporting by Sebastian Huld; writing by Eric Kelsey in Berlin, editing by Kate Kelland and Michel Rose)