United Nations, Dec. 21: Sewage from an unusually high tide caused a stink that forced the emergency evacuation of the UN Security Council on Tuesday, a UN spokesman said.
The Security Council chamber in a basement of the UN headquarters in New York, which overlooks the East River, was hurriedly emptied as a mounting sulfurous smell engulfed the area, diplomats said.
“We were about to start the debate but there was a very strong smell of gas,” one diplomat who had been in the chamber said.
Ambassadors and other top diplomats were all ushered out and 150 children who were to take part in the special debate were taken to the US mission across the street.
After a hurried investigation, a UN spokesman, Mr Farhan Haq, said an unusually high tide in the East River had caused the stink.
“The tides create a problem with the sewage system inside the building, and that was a problem around the Security Council,” Mr Haq told a briefing.
“It caused some form of gas that was determined to be non-harmful,” Mr Haq said.
He would not comment on questions that a lunar eclipse on Monday night had caused the high tide but quipped that in general “this place smells like a rose.”
The 60-year-old UN headquarters is undergoing a $2-billion renovation which has entailed major work in the basement. Several of the upper floors have also been cleared for the changes.
Parts of a nearby building, which houses the UN General Assembly and the office of the UN Secretary General, Mr Ban Ki-moon, were also evacuated for a few minutes because of the alert.
The youth debate eventually went ahead in a chamber in the General Assembly building.