Wilmslow woman, 20, and three pals collapse and rushed to hospital after 'spiking'

A student from Wilmslow and her three pals were hospitalised in a suspected group 'spiking' in a Liverpool city centre pub.

Ella Shields and her friends, who are all 20, collapsed and struggled to breathe after drinking on a night out, despite taking precautions to stay safe. Ella visited Bierkeller in Liverpool One with her three friends, Ellie, from Ludlow, Anna, from Burnley, and Meg, from Essex, the Liverpool Echo reports.

They say they were at the venue for around four hours on Saturday March 19, until suddenly one of the women collapsed in the bar's toilets.

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She was carried out of the bar, and it was first assumed she was ill due to the effects of alcohol. Yet Ella insisted her friend had drank even less than the others, who all still felt "fine" at this point in the evening .

An hour later, Ella, a music student, suddenly started to feel weak and as if she was having a panic attack. She reached for a chair before passing out, all within the space of "a minute". She told the Echo she later woke up in an ambulance, hearing strangers' voices and feeling a prick on her fingers.

North West Ambulance Service confirmed three ambulances and two response vehicles attended the scene following a call at 7.22pm asking for medical attention. A spokesman said four patients were taken to the Royal Liverpool Hospital for treatment.

Ella and her friends suspect they were spiked because they recognised the sensation from when they were spiked a year before. According to Drink Aware, loss of balance is a symptom of spiking, along with feeling sleepy, visual problems, confusion, nausea and loss of consciousness.

The second-year student, originally