Eight kids were taken to hospitals after they began exhibiting seizure-like symptoms during a performance by a Paris-based youth choir at a Cambridge church Tuesday night, according to the city’s fire department.
Firefighters responded to St. Paul Parish at 29 Mt. Auburn St. around 7:30 p.m. on Tuesday. A group of kids, aged between 11 and 13, were performing with the Chœur d’Enfants d’Île-de-France, a Paris-based youth choir, at the church when eight of them began experiencing “seizure-like symptoms,” the fire department said.
The youth choir was giving a free concert at the church Wednesday night as part of their U.S. tour.
Cambridge Fire Chief Tom Cahill told reporters at the scene that firefighters found one student with the choir group on the front steps of the church not actively seizing. But “that quickly escalated into 7 other people with seizure-like symptoms,” he said, according to WCVB.
All eight were taken to hospitals for further evaluation. Approximately 70 other people at the choir concert at the church on Tuesday night were not affected, the fire department said.
The fire department’s Hazmart team completed a “thorough survey” of the St. Paul buildings, using several air sampling meters. Results were negative for any hazardous conditions and the buildings were ventilated, the fire department said.
All occupants and concert attendees left the church with designated chaperones.
It is still not clear what caused the children to become sick.
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