Nine English schoolchildren have been taken to hospital in Spain after a suspected carbon monoxide leak in a hotel, Spanish authorities have said.
A leak at Hotel Campomar in Isla, in the district of Arnuero in Cantabria, northern Spain, was reported at 09:10 local time (08:10 GMT) on Thursday. The children were taken to Hospital de Valdecilla with minor injuries. It is understood that there were two tourist groups in the hotel at the time – one was the group of English children and their teachers and the other was a group of 45 older people from Malaga. There were 78 people in total at the hotel. The owner of the hotel said the cause of the leak was not yet known, but it could have been a problem with the boiler. He said the alarm was raised by a man who left his room for a walk before breakfast. Upon returning 20 minutes later, he found his wife asleep and that worried him, the news agency EFE reported. Firefighter Antonio Hernando said that when they arrived at the hotel, people were vomiting. Five adults were taken to hospital with serious injuries and 22 with minor injuries.