Service was interrupted on three Montreal metro lines around 3:30 p.m. Thursday after users were pepper sprayed at Villa-Maria station. This is the second incident of its kind to occur in two days in the network.
A substance “resembling cayenne pepper” was sprayed in a conflict between two groups of students around 3:20 p.m. Thursday, according to Caroline Chèvrefils, spokesperson for the SPVM. The station was then evacuated, and the Montreal fire department came to the scene.
Service was interrupted on the orange line between Côte-Vertu and Bonaventure stations, on the green line between Berri-UQAM and Angrignon, as well as on the blue line, between Snowdon and Parc, according to Isabelle A. Tremblay, spokesperson. of the Société de transport de Montréal (STM). Service resumed around 4 p.m.
When they arrived on the scene, the police found people who had been inconvenienced by the gas, including two who were assessed by emergency health, but no one was transported to hospital, according to the SPVM.
The police have not yet located the people involved in the event nor the person who sprayed the gas, according to Caroline Chèvrefils. SPVM agents met with witnesses and will view the images captured by surveillance cameras in order to identify the suspects.
Deja vu
This is the second pepper attack reported in the Montreal metro in two days. This is also the third time that metro service has been interrupted since Wednesday.
Wednesday noon, the Montreal City Police Service (SPVM) was called to go to the Berri-UQAM station, due to a fight which first broke out on the green line platform between two men .
During the altercation, pepper spray was used, which forced the evacuation of the station, as required by protocol, to allow teams to carry out emergency ventilation.
All of this forced an interruption of service on the yellow, green and orange lines of the Montreal metro. However, everything was resolved very quickly, in a little over ten minutes.
Another service interruption occurred later Wednesday.
The STM announced around 3 p.m. on Wednesday that service was interrupted on a significant portion of the orange line, between Berri-UQAM and Henri-Bourassa stations, due to an intervention by emergency services. Several users had to be evacuated and shuttle systems were set up in the meantime. Service finally resumed around 4 p.m.
With Henri Ouellette-Vézina, The Press