Panic as factory gas leak causes chaos, injuries at school

What should have been another regular day forpupilsand staff at a KwaZulu-Natal school turned into a nightmare yesterday when a gas leak believed to be from a nearby factory created chaos, with children collapsing and getting injured as they tried to flee. About 20 pupils from Umbilo Secondary School in Wentworth, south of Durban, were rushed to hospital after experiencing breathing difficulties, while a teacher was also hospitalised. A teacher said he was in the middle of a lesson when he noticed that pupils were struggling to breathe and initially thought they were just messing with him.

“[At first] I thought the learners were pulling a hoax on me, but I soon realised it was serious. The gas smell was becoming stronger and I struggled to breathe myself,“ he said. One pupil told Sowetan that learners panicked after inhaling the gas.

“We feared for our lives. Some learners in my class collapsed as we all tried to flee outside.” — Pupil “We feared for our lives. Some learners in my class collapsed as we all tried to flee outside.

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Some were injured as we were running out and others had seizures,” the pupil told Sowetan. Outside the school, a handful of pupils sat, reeling with shock as they recalled what unfolded. Garrith Jameson, spokesperson for a private ambulance service, said they could not detect the source of the gas leak.

“We rushed to the school after receiving a report that multiple learners were having difficulty breathing due to some sort of gas in the air. We were unsure where it was coming from. We treated some children on the scene while others were hospitalised,” Jameson said.

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