The Associated Press reports that according to broadcast officials, the massive building housing television facilities for the Beijing Games was evacuated Wednesday because of an apparent gas leak.
John Barton, director of sport for the Asia-Pacific Broadcasting Union, said he was in his office at the International Broadcast Center Wednesday evening when people started running down the halls telling everyone to get out. Barton said there apparently was a gas leak in the basement over the food service area, but no alarms were sounded.
People at the scene said there was a strong smell of gas. There were no immediate reports of injuries.The International Broadcast Center is near the main Olympic stadium and will beam television signals to viewers worldwide.
Beijing is now ready to provide medical services for the Games with 3,223 medical workers now in place, according to Jin Dapeng, chief of the Beijing Olympics organizing committee’s medical support group and party head of the Beijing Municipal Health Bureau.
Jin said Wednesday all Olympic venues and training centres would be provided with medical staff. He added 24 hospitals in Beijing designated to serve the Games had improved their services with standard bilingual signs, classified drugs, detailed emergency response plans and barrier-free facilities.
Special software will be introduced to prevent doctors from giving prescriptions that many include stimulants. All medicine at Beijing hospitals have been checked and those with stimulants have been tagged with warnings saying “not for athletes”.
Health officials will monitor the daily health conditions of people working at Games’ venues, non-competitive facilities and Olympic-designated hotels.
The Beijing Municipal Health Bureau’s website has been updated to provide information in English, French and Japanese and will offer the city’s general health conditions, latest health news, weekly reports on epidemics and information on designated hospitals. Also a handbook for emergency rescue in Beijing will be available on the website in eight languages, including English, French, Japanese and German.
Meanwhile Fu Shuangjian, deputy head of the State Administration for Industry and Commerce said Thursday the Olympic rings and the sign of “Beijing 2008” are among the most frequently infringed Olympic logos. One hundred and ninety-eight logos have so far been filed with the administration and made public, he said.
And some Taiwanese lawmakers are calling for the boycott of the Games unless a dispute over the island’s name is resolved. Several lawmakers of the ruling Nationalist Party said Thursday that China must not attempt to change the name under which the island will compete in the Games that would suggest Taiwan is part of China. Chinese officials want the team to be called “Zhongguo Taipei”, but Taiwan rejects it because “Zhongguo” means “China”.
It was announced Thursday that Iraq has been banned from the Beijing Games by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) because of an Iraqi government decision to disband the Iraqi Olympic Committee in May due to a dispute over how it had been assembled.
Iraq had planned to send a small team to the Games.
IOC spokesperson Emmanuelle Moreau told Reuters, “we sent a letter to the Iraqi government today saying that as the situation stands today, it is unlikely to have Iraqi athletes at the Beijing Games”.
