Modern Mysteries

Pupils 'decontaminated' due to mystery stink

By T.K. Randall
September 25, 2018 ·  2 comments

The school ended up being evacuated. Image Credit: CC BY-SA 2.0 frwl The peculiar incident saw emergency services being called to the school as children complained about a nauseating odour that made several of them sick and left nearly a dozen needing medical treatment.

The situation was exacerbated by reports suggesting that an overflying airplane had dropped an unidentified white substance over the local area.

The school ended up being evacuated with the children undergoing a decontamination process.

Thankfully nothing toxic or dangerous was found, however the exact cause of the mysterious stench led to quite a lot of speculation. Some reports suggested that a neighboring bacon factory was to blame, while others indicated that a truck transporting chemicals was responsible."We've searched the grounds, we've searched the outside of the school, there's nothing solid," said Wairarapa's area commander Inspector Scott Miller. "So if something was thrown, there would be some remnant of it, whether it be a container or whether it be pellets or something solid like that."

"The other thing with that is, if it's vapour - as it was - or a chemical smell coming out of the plane it wouldn't get anywhere near the ground or the school."

As it turns out however, the actual cause of the smell was something a lot more mundane.

"We have just been informed by the police that they are almost certain that the smell that made the students unwell was released from a large amount of mushroom compost that was dumped on an adjacent property to the school," the school wrote on Monday.

"The DHB and hospital authorities have confirmed that there is very little risk of any follow on or long term effect to anyone who inhaled the smell."

Source: RadioNZ.nz | Comments (2)

Tags: Wairarapa, School, New Zealand