As of: January 24, 2024, 4:07 p.m
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Exterior shot of the Blumberg elementary and high school.
© Britta Pedersen/dpa
A class has to leave the classroom as quickly as possible on Wednesday morning.
It smells so bad that some children vomit - the evil came from the sink.
Ahrensfelde - A foul smell wafted from the sink into the classroom.
There were 25 children and a teacher there, according to a spokesman for the Barnim district.
This Wednesday morning ended for nine of them in the hospitals in the area of Ahrensfelde, northeast of Berlin.
Their symptoms appeared at the same time, the children complained of nausea and headaches, and some had to vomit.
In the meantime there was talk of 13 injured children and it was said that there were signs of poisoning.
There is hardly anything to see outside, the early morning rain has only left small puddles.
He is said to be to blame for the misery in the classroom.
The symptoms the children had were caused by foul gases from a sewer pipe.
According to information, a check valve was broken.
There was no more water in the siphon of the classroom sink.
Sewage gas is poisonous
Normally, this twisted piece of pipe is responsible for keeping the nasty and sometimes poisonous sewage gas out of the pipes.
This is a gas mixture that can arise, among other things, in the sewer system when organic substances in wastewater decompose.
Depending on the source material, it usually contains mainly methane and carbon dioxide as well as other gases in variable proportions.
Very toxic hydrogen sulphide contained in it causes a bad smell of rotten eggs.
In terms of occupational safety, digester gas is considered a major risk in places where accumulation is possible, such as poorly ventilated canals, shafts and wastewater systems.
Deaths can occur in such environments.
It remained unclear how the nine children fared after being admitted to the hospitals.
According to the police, the fire department flushed out the drains on Wednesday morning and the defective valve was replaced by a civil engineering company.
Peace quickly returned
A few hours after the incident, everyday life had returned to school.
All 20 emergency vehicles were there quickly and gone again quickly.
The remaining children in the class who did not need to be treated in hospitals were able to enjoy a day without school at home.
At the Blumberg elementary and high school, which according to the website had 474 students at the start of the school year last summer, lessons otherwise continued as normal.
The smell had already disappeared by midday.
dpa