This story has been updated with new information.
The City of Montreal says an advisory concerning drinking water in a small section of the Ville-Marie borough has been mostly lifted, but some residents are still being told to avoid using the water.
Montreal officials advised residents downtown not to use tap water until further notice on Thursday evening. The affected sector in the Ville-Marie borough was between Bleury, Beaver Hall, René-Lévesque and Saint-Antoine streets until late Thursday evening.
As of Friday evening, only residents of 443-445-447-449-451-453-455 Viger west, 454-456-470 de la Gauchetiere west and 1030 St-Alexandre streets are being told to continue to avoid using the water in their buildings until further notice.
Residents are being invited to call 311 for information concerning the notice and 811 for health-related questions.
Symptoms of nausea
The notice was issued shortly after Montreal firefighters began an operation near St-Alexandre and Viger streets to deal with potentially hazardous materials.
Firefighters were at a building on Viger Street trying to contain a leak from a cooling system that leaked into a city aqueduct shortly before 5 p.m.
The fire department said that seven people in the building were feeling ill, and that two were sent to nearby hospitals. They had symptoms of nausea and diarrhea.
“All possible measures are being taken to determine the source of the problem and correct it,” the City of Montreal said in a tweet.
The ban was lifted just after 11 p.m.
In its updated advisory the city explained that after analysis, they had been able to confirm that the aqueduct system had not been affected by the cooling system leak.
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