Massey University students from the Manawatū campus claim they were informed too late about the detonation of a chemical substance on campus.
On Friday the 30th of May, students were informed via email that emergency services were on campus to remove chemicals from a chemical storage room in the AgHort B building. But due to the nature of the items, a series of controlled detonations were to take place on campus that afternoon.
Speaking to Massive, students said that this email was sent too late.
“They only sent emails explaining like 10 minutes before it was over,” one student claimed.
Another student said they were turned away from entering campus as the chemicals were being detonated, but they didn’t know what was happening in the moment.
“Holy shit, actually so nuts. I thought it was a collision or some shit, aye,” she said.
Some students speculated it was a homemade bomb, while others concluded it was just old chemicals.
“They were cleaning out a cupboard with old chemicals in it and found something that was explosive so people came to explode it in the field behind the student car park I believe,” a student said.
In response to Massive, a Massey University spokesperson confirmed that the chemicals found in the hazardous materials storage room had shown signs of degradation.
Emergency services were called immediately who concluded “the safest option was to move them to an isolated location on campus and carry out controlled detonations”.
These detonations were conducted by New Zealand Police and specialist Defence Force personnel. As part of the response, several buildings were evacuated and roads were closed.
Massey acknowledged that communication to students had “limited notice”.
“Because this was a fast-moving and highly controlled Police operation, the university had limited advance notice of the timing of the detonations and necessary evacuations,” they said.
“Information was relayed as soon as possible to those within the affected area … public safety considerations meant wider communications had to follow the direction and timing set by Police.”
A second email was sent to students once the operation concluded, and buildings and roads were reopened.