11 Hong Kong students injured after contact with hydrogen peroxide at school lab
- Pupils at Tsing Yi’s Lok Sin Tong Leung Chik Wai Memorial School sent to Yan Chai Hospital and Princess Margaret Hospital for treatment
- Students suffered minor injuries to their fingers after they had skin contact with chemical compound during Friday morning class
Eleven Hong Kong secondary school pupils were injured on Friday morning after they came into contact with an unstable chemical compound during a classroom science experiment.
The Form Three students, comprising six boys and five girls, from Tsing Yi’s Lok Sin Tong Leung Chik Wai Memorial School suffered minor injuries to their fingers, police said.
The students were injured at around 10am after they had skin contact with hydrogen peroxide in the school’s fourth-floor laboratory.
Emergency personnel were called to the school after receiving a report of a gas leak at 10.10am, the force said, adding there had been no need for a building-wide evacuation.
The teenage boys were sent to Princess Margaret Hospital in Lai Chi Kok while the girls were dispatched to Yan Chai Hospital in Tsuen Wan.
The school said a very small amount of hydrogen peroxide had spilled during the laboratory experiment, stressing the incident did not involve any chemical leakage.
Hydrogen peroxide is a strong oxidising, corrosive chemical that includes bleach and is commonly used in the industrial and medical sectors. The compound is unstable and will decompose into water and oxygen upon exposure to light or heat.
Additional reporting by Clifford Lo
