Montreal subway users on Thursday faced two separate incidents involving the presence of irritant gas, forcing the evacuation of several stations and disruption to services across a large portion of the network.
Posted at 6:45 p.m
Two separate events occurred on Thursday, including the presence of irritant gases on the Montreal subway, forcing entire lines to be shut down and passengers to be evacuated. However, the two events are not related, says Katherine Roux Groleau, director of corporate communications and public affairs at the Société de Transport de Montréal (STM).
The presence of irritant gas was first detected at 1:48 p.m. at Parc station on the blue line.
“Certain stations and trains were then evacuated so that we could proceed with the emergency ventilation protocol,” Roux Groleau said via email. The blue line and orange line between Berri-UQAM and Henri-Bourassa stations were disrupted for 28 minutes.
Then, at 18:10, the presence of irritant gas was also detected at the Berri-UQAM station, triggering a new emergency ventilation protocol. The 24-minute service disruption this time affected the orange line between Beaubien and Lionel-Groulx stations, the green line between Viau and Lionel-Groulx, and the yellow line between Berri-UQAM and Longueuil — much of the Montreal Metro.
In Berri-UQAM, one person would have used that irritant gas, possibly pepper spray, Raphaël Bergeron, public relations agent for the Service de Police de la Ville de Montréal (SPVM), said Thursday.
The SPVM has launched an investigation to identify the suspect or suspects, Agent Bergeron asserts. “Are these people who had fun disrupting traffic on the subway during the day? It’s a strong possibility,” he said.
Those responsible face charges of incitement to hatred. “We’re talking about events that disrupted an important element of Montreal: the subway. If it’s people who wanted to be funny, it’s not very funny,” denounces Mr Bergeron.