eight people, including seven college students, poisoned with chlorine after swimming in an aquatic center

Eight people, including seven college students, were hospitalized on Monday, May 16, after poisoning linked to a chlorine leak in an aquatic center in Andrézieux-Bouthéon (Loire), reports France 3 Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes.

Those treated suffered from vomiting, headaches and sore throats. Among them are seven students from two sixth-grade classes at the Jacques-Prévert college in Andrézieux-Bouthéon, who bathed Monday morning in the city’s Nautiform pools, managed by the metropolis of Saint-Etienne. The origin of the incident is an overdose of chlorine in the skimmer, the part that sucks up the water to send it to the filtration system. The technical room where the mixture with the water takes place was placed under seal.

The lifeguard and the seven students were able to leave the hospitals to which they had been taken on Monday. The Saint-Etienne prosecutor’s office has opened an investigation for “endangering the lives of others”. This will have to determine the origin of this overdose (hardware or computer failure, human error, etc.), specifies the gendarmerie.