Dozens of people have been assessed and several have suffered burns after an incident at a childcare centre in Christchurch.
RNZ understands that six children and one adult have been taken to hospital today with chemical burns, one of whom is in a serious condition, from the centre in the suburb of Woolston.
Fire and Emergency NZ was alerted at 1.18pm and sent crews from Woolston and Christchurch City stations, including a hazmat unit as a precaution.
Woolston Senior Station Officer John Herriot said a corrosive product had mistakenly been used instead of detergent on a makeshift waterslide.
"The teachers have had a waterslide - bit of fun for the kids - out the back today and at some point of time some detergent's unfortunately been misidentified and a corrosive product has ended up on the slip and slide.
"This has caused some irritation to the children's skin and some light blistering. We've just responded with our specialist hazmat response along with ... St John to resolve the issue."
The ambulance service said it was alerted to the incident at 1.13pm.
In total, 40 patients were assessed and those that were not taken to hospital are uninjured, it said.
"Eighteen units responded: nine ambulances, three rapid response units, five operations managers and one Major Incident Support Team vehicle."
An RNZ reporter saw one child put into an ambulance.
Another parent told RNZ that children were affected by a chemical used to clean a slide. They did not know what the chemical was, and their child had not been affected.
RNZ has approached the childcare centre, but staff refused to comment.
