11 Kids Suffer Burns After School Science Experiment Goes Wrong; 2 Seriously Injured

Eleven children and one adult suffered burns after a classroom experiment went wrong at a Sydney school Monday.

An explosion rocked the Manly West Public School around 1 p.m. local time (9 p.m. ET, Sunday) while a group of fifth graders was participating in a science experiment, called "the worm," using sugar, baking soda and a flammable liquid.

Paramedics, eight ambulances and two helicopters arrived at the school following the explosion and rushed the injured primary school children to hospitals. The kids were aged around 10 years, reported PerthNow.

New South Wales Ambulance said high winds were partially to be blamed.

"We received multiple triple-0 calls reporting that a number of children had sustained burns during a science experiment, which was being conducted outside," NSW Ambulance acting superintendent Phil Templeman said, reported 9News. "Today's high winds have impacted the experiment and blown some of the materials around."

"All of them, apart from the two in a serious condition, were walking and were stable with relatively superficial injuries," Templeman added.

One child was airlifted to the Children's Hospital at Westmead with serious burns. Another child was rushed to the same hospital in an ambulance and was in the care of a specialist medical team treating serious burns. Five kids were admitted to the Royal North Shore Hospital and four others were taken to Northern Beaches Hospital with superficial burns. The adult victim wasn't hospitalized.

"The children have sustained burns to the upper body, chest, face, and legs; thankfully, the majority of the students were not badly injured," Templeman said, adding that the incident required a "huge response" from paramedics. More than a dozen paramedics and police cars were at the scene, reported 9News.

In a similar incident, 11 people, mostly children, died after a fire tore through a school for the blind in Uganda. The incident, which happened in late October, left six kids with critical burn injuries.