TOYONAKA, Osaka Pref.:  Twenty-two children at an elementary school in western Japan were sent to hospital on Tuesday after a strange odor was reported at the school.

Around 9:15 a.m. (12:15 a.m. GMT), local fire authorities received an emergency call reporting a sulfur smell from a staff official at Honan Elementary School in the city of Toyonaka, Osaka Prefecture. A local police station and other authorities are investigating the cause of the incident.

According to the police station and other sources, some 30 children complained of sickness. Of them, 13 boys and nine girls were sent to hospital.

The children’s symptoms are mild and no abnormalities or suspicious items have been confirmed at the school, the sources said.

The city’s board of education said that students at the school were in class at the time of the incident and all of them moved to the gymnasium of the school later.

Parents are picking up their children and leaving the school with them, according to the board.

JIJI Press