28 people taken to hospital and 48 treated at the scene of a major incident in east London.

A major incident at the London Aquatics Centre in Stratford has seen 28 people taken to hospital and 48 treated at the scene.

The Aquatics Centre tweeted: “At approximately 10 am this morning we took the decision to evacuate the centre. This was due to a release of gas that occurred when the facilities management company that operates the plant room took delivery of pool chemicals.”

The London Fire Brigade asked nearby residents earlier to keep their doors and windows closed due to the high level of chlorine.

The London Ambulance Service has released the following statement:

This morning we responded to a major incident at the London Aquatic Centre in Stratford, alongside colleagues from the London Fire Brigade and Metropolitan Police.

We sent a significant number of resources including 13 ambulance crews, advanced paramedics, two medics in fast response cars, two incident response officers, a medical incident adviser and members of our Hazardous Area Response Team (HART). 

We also dispatched medics from London’s Air Ambulance.

Our crews took 29 patients to hospital and assessed a further 48 patients at the scene. The majority of patients were reporting minor breathing difficulties.

Thank you to all our teams who responded today, both at the scene and in our control room, and to our firefighter and police colleagues.”

Darren Farmer, London Ambulance Service Gold Commander