Updated
Two small bottles of acid have forced the evacuation of around 5,000 staff and students from the city campus of Sydney's University of Technology amid fears of an explosion.
Police says about 11am (AEDT) university staff found two bottles of picric acid had been exposed to air and crystallised, making them unstable.
Authorities blocked off several streets surrounding the university in the inner-city suburb of Ultimo for about 45 minutes while police, firefighters and a hazardous materials team attended the scene.
Superintendent Tom Cooper from Fire and Rescue NSW says the risk was serious enough to evacuate the tower and another UTS building.
"They've opened up a cupboard in the basement of the building that contains some picric acid. We've got two 250 millimetre bottles of picric acid that have started to crystallise," he said.
"The danger with this product is when it crystallises and comes into contact with air, when it dries out it can become explosive if it's moved.
"As a precaution we've called in the bomb squad to help us with this issue, as they're the experts in this field."
He could not confirm whether an explosion of such a small quantity of the acid could potentially bring down the tower, but said the fumes were another potential hazard.
"I can't comment on the structural integrity of the building but it could cause an explosion and we won't take any risks," Superintendent Cooper said.
"This product is highly toxic and we don't want to cause any further damage to the environment.
"There are other containers of this product in this particular basement that are safe. If there is an explosion we could have an escape and that is what we are trying to prevent."
The police bomb squad later confirmed the acid had been made safe and taken away for a controlled explosion.
Topics: chemicals-and-pharmaceuticals, emergency-incidents, disasters-and-accidents, ultimo-2007, nsw
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