All schools in Oslo, Norway, were suddenly evacuated around lunchtime on Thursday after the Public Protection Directorate discovered an explosion hazard in a series of two and five kilo CO2 fire extinguishers used by the schools.
This was reported by the municipality of Oslo during a press conference on Thursday. Tens of thousands of pupils are now on the street to be picked up by their parents, have gone home themselves or get lessons on alternative locations for the few school leaders who managed to find such a location.
Across Norway, 8360 of the feared fire extinguishers were delivered between January 2006 and April 2011. In Europe, this concerns 94,000 units. Oslo does not yet know whether schools will reopen on Friday. | © 2011 Marcel Burger for ANP News Agency (original in Dutch on 13 October 2011, previously unpublished)