At least 50 people where evacuated from the Children’s Court of Victoria in Melbourne’s CBD this morning after security officers used capsicum spray to stop a fight between two males.
A Victoria Police spokeswoman said protective services officers had used the spray when a fight broke out between the pair on the first floor of the court building on Little Lonsdale Street.
Everyone in the building, including those in its nine court rooms, were evacuated between 10.30 and 11am, a court spokeswoman said this morning.
She said this was because the capsicum spray was spread throughout the complex by the building’s airconditioning system.
No one was injured.
The fight occurred outside a court room. Police will question the two males involved.
Cue the Dead Kennedy’s ‘Chemical Warfare‘.
Capsicum doesn’t hurt you, it just stings. Capsicum is what makes Tabasco sauce popular.
But then again, Tabasco has been used to prank many tongues.
Pepper spray in the US.
Shoud have choosen the foam OC. The stream and fog cans will clear out a building pronto. Capsicum in the spray cans are a lot more powerful than Tabasco sauce.
There are many things in life I’ve never experienced that I deeply regret. This isn’t one of them.
I don’t leave home without it. In addition to other things.
Capsicum is a chemical from Chillies, not pepper. We can thank Columbus for his lie to the King and Queen, claiming to have found India and it’s spices. He presented the dried and ground chillies as piper nigrum (black pepper). Oh, and the capsicum would have settled on the floor…
Having been in a building that got evacuated due to the same reason, I can tell you first hand that it doesn’t just “settle to the floor”. Everyone’s eyes were burning and watering up pretty bad. I my own case, someone had accidentally set a canister off near the air handling intake vent.
Its not harmful long term but it does sting up your eyes and can cause temporary blindness if you get exposed to enough of it. Even at minor exposure its not something you can just sit through at your desk.
Hmmm. I wonder if one can get out of Jury duty by showing up very “gassy”? What can they do? Fine you for having a health condition? I think not.