About 35 students of Chennai’s Victory Matriculation Higher Secondary School, a private educational institution in Thiruvottiyur, required medical attention on Friday after they reported breathing difficulties due to an alleged gas leak. Some students fainted after “an unpleasant smell” spread around the school, according to reports.

As many as 20 students of Victory Matriculation HSS are still undergoing treatment while the rest were sent home, Chennai-based media reports said. A girl was taken to Old Jail Road’s Government Stanley Hospital for further treatment. But doctors told the media that her CT scan, X-ray, lung function and blood tests were all normal.

Speaking to the press, the students said the affected children started showing concern around 12:30pm on Friday. Difficulty breathing, burning eyes and throat problems were the most common symptoms in most people, they said. An unpleasant smell was persistent around the school premises for at least two days, they reportedly added.

At first the complaints were ignored by the teachers who resorted to serving the children hot water as a cure for their throat problems. But within two hours, students started fainting in the classrooms. Students of classes VI to X were the most affected, The New Indian Express said in a report. The classrooms of the students who lost consciousness Friday afternoon were all on the same floor of the school building, the news report added. Soon the sick children were taken to the government hospital in Theradi.

To the further embarrassment of the school authorities, parents claimed that they were not informed about the development by the school management. Until 4:00 p.m., they thronged both the school and the hospital and demanded a strong response from those concerned.

Although it has not yet been confirmed, authorities suspect that a gas leak at the school laboratory was the cause of the problem. But police officials who inspected Victory Matriculation HSS doubted this theory as the lab was not close to the part of the school’s campus where most of the students were affected, TNIE said. The laboratory was located on the left side of the building – opposite the classrooms of classes VI to X low.

The mismatches in the development did not end there as the NDRF later in the evening claimed that they also failed to “smell gas” in the school premises.

“”At present I cannot say the exact reason. We have not yet determined the exact cause. Our team came and assessed the situation, everything is normal, we did not smell gas,” said NDRF Commander AK Chauhan.