What we know so far: 35 Thiruvottiyur School students rushed to hospital – The Week

Around 35 students of Chennai’s Victory Matriculation Higher Secondary School, a private educational institution in Thiruvottiyur, required medical attention on Friday after they reported difficulty breathing due to an alleged gas leak. Some students reportedly fainted after an “unpleasant smell” reportedly spread throughout the school.

According to media reports from Chennai, as many as 20 students of Victory Matriculation HSS are still undergoing treatment while the rest have been sent home. A girl was transferred to Government Stanley Hospital on Old Jail Road for further treatment. However, doctors told the media that her CT scan, X-ray, lung function and blood tests were all normal.

Speaking to the press, the students reportedly said that the affected children started feeling unwell around 12:30 pm on Friday. Difficulty breathing, burning eyes and throat problems were the common symptoms for most, they said. According to reports, there was an unpleasant smell on the school premises for at least two days.

At first, the complaints were ignored by teachers, who served the children hot water as a cure for their throat problems. But within two hours, students in classrooms began to faint. Students in classes VI to X are the worst affected, says a report in the New Indian Express. The classrooms of the students who passed out Friday afternoon were all on the same floor of the school building, the news report continued. Soon the sick children were taken to the government hospital in Theradi.

To further embarrass the school authorities, parents claimed that they were not informed about the development by the school management. They crowded the school and hospital until 4 p.m., eagerly demanding answers from those affected.

Although not yet confirmed, authorities reportedly suspect that a gas leak in the school laboratory was the cause of the problem. But police officers who inspected Victory Matriculation HSS cast doubt on this theory as the lab was not located near the part of the school campus that affected most students, TNIE said. The laboratory was on the left side of the building – opposite were the classrooms for classes VI to X.

However, the discrepancies in the development did not end there as the NDRF later in the evening claimed that they too had failed to “smell gas” on the school premises.

“At the moment I cannot say the exact cause. We still have to determine the exact cause. “Our team came and assessed the situation, everything is normal, we did not smell any gas,” said NDRF commander AK Chauhan.