The durian strikes again. On Friday afternoon fire and rescue teams were called to the University of Canberra after receiving calls of a “strong smell of gas”, which only turned out to be something quite unusual.
Approximately 550 students evacuated the library in under six minutes because of what was believed to be a gas leak however, it was later revealed on Facebook that the root of the cause was a durian.
Durian is fruit more commonly found in south-east Asia and can be adored by some for it’s at once sweet and savoury flavour, however, for others, it is most known for its incredibly horrible smell that is so bad they’ve banned it in places such as Singapore’s subway system.
Staff at the Canberra university removed the fruit from the building after it was found near an air vent on the library’s second floor before then posting to their Facebook page explaining the real truth:
It is still unclear as to whether this was just a coincidence or a sick joke and the university has said while food is allowed in parts of the library “it’s not appropriate student conduct if they did it on purpose, and lack of common sense if they didn’t.”
This isn’t the first time the offending fruit has caused a mass evacuation. In April 2018 approximately 500 people were evacuated by Victorian police from RMIT library as almost 40 firefighters and specialist crews searched the building for again, a feared gas leak.
