Published Nov 19, 2022 | 12:53 AM ⚊ Updated Nov 19, 2022 | 12:46 PM
Hiran Mayi with her parents. (Sumit Jha/South First)
Hiran Mayi, a student of second-year intermediate at the Kasturba Gandhi Degree and PG College for Women at Marredpally, in Hyderabad, was having lunch with her friends on Friday, 18 November, when it happened.
The group of girls on the second floor of the college’s main building suddenly saw one of them experiencing breathlessness.
Around the same time, some of them became aware of a foul smell emanating from somewhere around the building, Hiran Mayi told South First.
Within minutes, they witnessed not just their friend but other girls around them losing consciousness.
When they approached a member of the faculty there, she advised them to proceed towards the sports complex.
However, some students — panicked by the sudden development — were already calling ambulances, said Hiran Mayi.
At the spots complex, she told South First, they saw several other students who were experiencing breathlessness and irritation in their eyes. Some of them had even vomited, she said.
As the first ambulances arrived, students gathered at the college gate to get into them. Hiran Mayi recalled helping her friend get into one of these ambulances before she fainted at the red signal near the college gate.
“The next thing I remember was waking up in a bed in the hospital,” she told South First, surrounded by her worried parents.
Hiran Mayi was not alone, and her and her friends’ suffering were not the only kinds. They were just two of the more than 50 students currently in hospital, and their families are really worried.
Aijaz, whose daughter Naseema Begum also fell ill during the lunch break in college — sometime between 1:30 pm and 2 pm — was also worried.
He and his family were initially relieved as the hospital released Naseema after initial treatment because she began feeling better.
However, when they reached home by 6 pm, she began experiencing breathlessness again, and her parents rushed her back to the hospital.
There, the doctors ordered several tests, including blood tests, but did not tell Aijaz exactly what had happened to his daughter.
“All they said was she must have inhaled something,” he told South First.
Hyderabad City Police DCP (North Zone) Chandana Deepti said in a statement that “around 50 students” were affected due to the incident.
The list of affected students displayed at the hospital gave the exact number as 51.
The DCP explained: “The clues team ascertained that the reason for the foul smell was the lifting of garbage nearby, around the same time.”
She added: “So far, no complaints have been received, and all the students are safe.”
