HYDERABAD: As many as 17 students and two teachers of the SC Welfare Government Residential School at Kothur mandal in Ranga Reddy were admitted to a local hospital as they fell sick after allegedly inhaling an unidentified gas on Thursday. The school has a strength of around 350 students.
According to information, the incident happened at around 11:30am, when some students from the school started experiencing nausea.
Soon after noticing this, the school management informed the police who reached the spot immediately, however could not find any strange smell. The police officials left the school after the students felt better. However, the Kothur police got the same complaint again after mid-day meal was served at the school.
"At around 1:30pm, around 17 students and two teachers started vomiting and experiencing headache and nausea. They were immediately taken to the primary healthcare centre (PHC) nearby," Kothur police inspector N Chandrababu said. "According to the reported symptoms, the cause could be contamination of water, food or air," said Ranga Reddy District Medical & Health Officer (DMHO) Swarajya Lakshmi.
"We have sent the samples of the food served at the school during noon to a lab for testing. However, we are not certain if it was some gas or food that caused the said issue at this point. Six students are currently under observation. Whereas, others who felt better were discharged around evening," the DMHO said. The police are currently investigating if there was any chance of gas leakage or negligence while preparing food.