A family carrying out a school art project with their teenage child on Saturday accidentally caused a cyanide scare, resulting in the evacuation of the building and the hospitalisation of one of the residents.

The incident took place shortly before 12 noon at a five-person private property on Gilbert Road, in the north of Cambridge. 

The project involved boiling a leaf until only the veins were left and using the design as art. However, the leaf picked by the family was from a cherry laurel tree, which contains toxic chemicals including a cyanide compound.

Cyanide is a potentially deadly chemical which when boiled can give off toxic fumes as a reaction. It can exist in various forms and is sometimes described as having a "bitter almond" smell. Hydrogen cyanide, under the name Zyklon B, was used as a genocidal agent by the Germans in World War II.

The mother in the house smelt an unusual smell (much like almonds) when the family were boiling the leaf, so the family stopped the process and called the emergency services.

Cambridgeshire police, the East of England Ambulance Service and Cambridgeshire Fire and Rescue Service all responded to the incident.

The Hazardous Area Response Team were also called to the incident, but were told to stand down before arriving. 

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A spokesman from Cambridgeshire Fire and Rescue Service said: 

“Crews from Cambridge, St Neots and Huntingdon attended the scene.

“The building was safely evacuated when the crews arrived. After assessing the scene and speaking with the owners, firefighters wearing breathing apparatus and gas tight suits entered the property.”

One resident, suffering breathing difficulties, was taken to Addenbrooke’s Hospital as a “precautionary measure", according to a spokesperson for the ambulance service speaking to Cambridge News.

A police spokesperson said that the experiment had been “innocent”: “There is nothing suspicious about this incident, and nobody has been injured.”