After a student had complained of nausea during experiments and a suspicious smell had been noticed, the fire department had declared a general alarm on thursday and evacuated the entire building affected.
More than 100 people – mostly students – were taken to hospital. However, no one was seriously injured. After several hours, the fire department finally gave the all-clear. All measurements were negative, a spokesman said late last night. According to police, it was not possible to determine whether toxic gas had been released during the students’ experiments at all.
What exactly happened in the university laboratory is unclear. A spokeswoman for the university said that the students had been busy with various basic experiments when the alarm was sounded. Which experiment happened and which chemicals were involved still have to be investigated. The fire department considers it probable that a small concentration of gas escaped in the meantime, which then quickly evaporated and was no longer detectable in the end.