MELBOURNE: The smell of a durian caused patients to be evacuated from a hospital here.
Firefighters were called to the Mitcham Private Hospital in Doncaster East Road, Mitcham, about 10 pm on Monday amid concerns there had been a gas leak in one of the wards for the elderly.
But the Metropolitan Fire Brigade (MFB) was later told the unusual smell was from a durian fruit, believed to be a gift to a patient.
“There was this strange smell and the hospital mistook it for gas and called us,” an MFB spokesman told Bernama.
“At first, we did not know it was called durian. But a TV cameraman who arrived at the scene knew the fruit and told us all about the pungent smell. We often have people mistakenly smell something and believe it to be gas,” he said. — Bernama