UCF Student Union evacuated

At approximately 3:20 p.m. the Student Union was evacuated due to reports of an unidentified chemical release in the women’s restroom. As of the yet the police have no substantial knowledge of its identity or source.

“We evacuated the Student Union because there was some type of chemical in the air that was aggravating people,” said Major David Zumbri of the UCF Police Department.

According to Deputy Chief Michael Zelanes, “[S]omebody possibly sprayed some pepper spray…[so we evacuated] to basically make sure that’s what it is.”

At this time there is not more information related to the type of chemical that was released in the air, but according to a text alert sent out by the university, the substance is similar to pepper spray. 

Eye witnesses say that the fire alarms went off and then suddenly the Student Union officials as well as police instructed everyone to leave the premises.

“All we know is that the fire alarm went off about 3:20ish…they originally just had us at the boardwalk and then they just kept pushing us and pushing us back,” said Samantha Taylor, an employee of Asian Chao, “All we know is that there was a chemical sprayed in the woman’s bathroom.”

Senior environmental studies major Juan Lugo said customers at Qdoba had a visible reaction to the substance that was sprayed.

“Out of nowhere people just started coughing like coworkers and restaurant guests. We thought it was just something going on outside but then Union people came and the police also came and told us we had to evacuate the restaurant,”  Lugo said.