Voting in the Concordia Student Union elections has been extended until 4 p.m. on Friday. The decision to extend voting hours came after Loyola campus was evacuated Thursday afternoon when a gas leak was detected at the campus.
Classes were cancelled and the campus was closed until 4:45 p.m. Traffic to and from Loyola was restricted, and all non-essential personnel were evacuated from the campus
Voting in the CSU elections had been scheduled to end at 8 p.m. on Thursday. Ballot counting did begin on Thursday evening, but no resuts will be released until after the polls close tomorrow.
The leak occurred at about 12 p.m., when construction workers at the corner of Sherbrooke St. West and West Broadway St. cut through a natural gas pipeline, Concordia University spokesperson Chris Mota said.
Hundreds of students, faculty and staff were herded out of the journalism and science buildings, to a practice field near the north ed of campus as the smell of gas started to fill the air.
Police, firefighters and workers from Gaz Metro responded to incident.
Sherbrooke St. was blocked off between West Broadway and Coronation Ave.
No injuries were reported.
The leak occurred at the construction site for the Structural and Functional Genomics Centre, which will provide facilities for researching crop improvement and sustainable biotechnology.
The centre, which will be attached to the existing science complex, is being built with the help of nearly $69 million in funding the university received earlier this year from the federal and provincial governments.
— Tyson Lowrie contributed reporting to this story.
