BRITISH children on a school trip to northern Spain have been admitted to hospital after a gas leak was discovered in their hotel.
A group of 45 pensioners staying at the Hotel Campoamor in the village of Isla, close to Santander (Cantabria) are being treated for carbon monoxide poisoning – one of whom is critical and another seven said to be in hyperbaric oxygen chambers at the Marqués de Valdecilla Hospital.
Reports claim that five people are in a serious condition and one had to be revived after going into cardiac arrest.
None of the British children, who are aged 10, are badly ill – in fact, a hotel employee said they were only taken to hospital 'as a precaution', partly because some of them suffer asthma.
She says the group is 'all okay' and that they had not been on the second floor, where the gas leak occurred, at the time.
“[The children] only found out something was wrong when the ambulances started coming,” the employee says.
Four hotel rooms were affected, all of which were occupied by the pensioners on a group tour from Málaga.
The building was evacuated at around 09.10 this morning (Thursday), about an hour after the leak was thought to have started, reportedly in one of the bathrooms, but the guests who are not in hospital have now returned to the hotel.
Staff and guests became aware something was the matter when one of the couples on the tour did not turn up for breakfast this morning before their day's touring.
The British children, who are in two groups from the same undisclosed school, were due to return to the UK tonight by ferry from Santander.
Photograph by Cantabria regional emergency services
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