Nineteen schoolchildren were hospitalized in the Far East after a student brought a canister with condensed animal-repellent gas to school and sprayed it in a women's bathroom, a news report said Monday.
More than 300 students and school employees were evacuated following the Monday incident in the town of Klyuchi on the Kamchatka peninsula, the Interior Ministry said in a statement, Interfax reported.
Police and the local branch of the Investigative Committee are looking into the incident, the statement was quoted as saying.
The gas sprayed inside the school did not cause any severe injuries, the region's top health official, Tatyana Lemeshko, said in a statement, Interfax reported.
Nine students were treated at a hospital and discharged, but doctors wanted to keep others under observation for the rest of the day, and some will undergo additional medical tests Tuesday, Lemeshko was quoted as saying.
The incident was caused by a student who brought a “canister of gas for repelling animals” to school and “sprayed it in a women's bathroom,” a Kamchatka deputy governor, Irina Untilova, said in a statement, Interfax reported. No additional details on the gas were provided.
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