35 students taken ill due to gas leak from Tiruvottiyur school lab

CHENNAI: As many as 35 students of the Victory Matric Higher Secondary School in Tiruvottiyur were affected due to a suspected gas leak at the school laboratory. The students from about six classes on the third floor of the school building, close to the chemistry lab experienced chest pain, abdominal pain, vomiting and breathing difficulty and were evacuated immediately.

A total of 26 students who fainted and turned unconscious were rushed to the Government Urban Community Health Centre in Tiruvottiyur and two of them were later referred to Stanley GH. Some other students were taken to private hospitals in the vicinity and are currently stable.

The students of classes 7, 8 and 10 had noted a pungent smell in the classes since 10 am but started fainting, coughing and vomiting after 1 pm.

"I was feeling heavy in my chest and was coughing in pain. I also had several episodes of vomiting. I still feel abdominal pain," said Santhoshini, one of the affected students at the hospital.

Another student, on condition of anonymity, said they had been noticing the pungent smell for the last few days and had informed the teachers but it was dismissed as just some factory smell from outside the school premises.

Meanwhile, the parents said they were shocked to see the news on TV as they were not informed by the school. "We rushed to the school only to be told that our kids were inside. Only when we insisted on meeting them, we were told about them being taken to hospital," said Malar, mother of one of the students.