The children were evacuated during a regional swimming event in the indoor swimming pool in the city's Drispenstedt district after experiencing a variety of reactions to high levels of chlorine in the water, the pediatric clinic in Hildesheim announced.
The young patients required urgent treatment for breathing difficulties and eye irritation. Authorities measured high levels of airborne chlorine gas in the swimming hall, but have not yet discovered the source of the leak. A special police unit closed the pool to investigate.
This isn’t the first case of chlorine poisoning in a public pool in Germany. In late October, 25 people were hospitalized after a failure in the measuring unit at a swimming hall in Bitburg.