Potassium Cyanide requests has Toronto Police looking for man

Toronto - The Toronto Police Service are asking for help identifying a man who allegedly requested Potassium Cyanide on two occasions at the Scarborough Campus of the University of Toronto.

According to a police report the first request was in November when the man entered the third floor of the Sciences and Research building. The man fled the area before police arrived. The man was described as brown, late teens, 5'8", 134 lbs., thin build and short black hair. A second request came at the same location on January 10. On this visit the man approached a professor who was inside his office for Potassium Cyanide. When the man was told that the professor did not have the chemical he left the building. The man was brown, late teen's early 20's, 5'8", 130 lbs., with a thin build, short black hair. He was wearing a black winter jacket with a red/white vertical swoosh at the chest to the waist. Potassium Cyanide looks like sugar but isn't sweet. The chemical is highly soluble in water. It is an inorganic compound with the formula KCN. KCN is mostly used in gold mining, organic synthesis and electroplating. KCN is toxic. The compound smells like bitter almonds to some. Without treatment a person can die quickly, within 45 minutes. The toxin was used in the mass suicide at Jonestown. It has also been used in the United States in gas chambers for execution and in Nazi Germany in the gas chambers used during the Holocaust.