Seven people hospitalised following chemical incident in Dagenham
Ambulances were called when a leak in a fish tank led to evacuations
Seven people have been taken to hospital following a chemical leak at a house in Dagenham in east London.
Officers were first alerted to the incident at a property on Wren Road on Saturday evening (August 10th).
When responders from the London Ambulance Service and the Metropolitan Police arrived, the street was required to be evacuated.
It was later revealed that the evacuations were triggered due to the discovery of palytoxin, a dangerous substance released from a coral in a fish tank.
When exposed to the toxin, a number of symptoms can occur such as coughing, fever, chills, sore throat, headache, muscle aches, chest pains and respiratory distress.
In a statement, a spokesperson for the London Ambulance Service said: "We were called at 9.46pm on 10 August to reports of an incident at a residential address on Wren Road.
“We sent a number of resources including ambulance crews, an incident response officer and members of our Hazardous Area Response Team (HART).”
“We responded alongside colleagues from London Fire Brigade. We treated seven patients and took them all to hospital.”