Riverstone gas leak: One dead, five police hospitalised after gas leak at Haveli Indian restaurant in Sydney

One person has died and several police officers have been overcome with suspected carbon monoxide poisoning after a gas leak in a Sydney restaurant.

Emergency services were called after reports of the gas leak at the Haveli Indian restaurant on Garfield Road, Riverstone at about 9.15am on Tuesday.

Police confirmed, a 25-year-old man is dead, and one member of the public and five police officers were conveyed to hospital in a stable condition.

Haveli is a well known restaurant chain in western Sydney with venues in Riverstone and Stanhope Gardens.

Fire and Rescue NSW Superintendent Adam Dewberry said multiple people inside the restaurant “had been overcome by gas”.

“A number of these people appear to have been affected by carbon monoxide poisoning.”

Not long after the fire teams arrived they had to begin emergency resuscitation on one of the people affected by the gas.

“A person had been rescued out of this building, non-responsive, unconscious, and was being resuscitated. Unfortunately, they could not be revived,” Supt. Dewberry confirmed at a roadside media briefing.

“It was obvious to the first arriving emergency services, the air quality in the building was compromised and firefighters wearing protective clothing, including breathing apparatuses, entered that structure with the gas detectors, and identified that there was carbon monoxide in there and some other products that you just can’t survive in when you’re breathing that.

“Where we’re at now is we’ve got our firefighters who specialise in hazardous materials on scene. They’re in the building. They’re actually taking samples. They’re diagnosing the air quality as they work to find out what the products are that are contaminating the air so we can determine where it’s coming from and shut it off and render the area safe.

“The information that we can get can also help the hospital treat all the people that have been transported. But, more importantly, we do need to isolate this area so we can render the site is safe, and then those investigations can commence by New South Wales Police,” Mr Dewberry added.

Assistant Commissioner Gavin Wood told members of the media that, unfortunately, officers who were first on the scene could not save the “25-year-old deceased male”.

“At that time, the five police officers attempted CPR to the point where they felt in the environment they were in, including an odour, they took the 25-year-old male from the building and continued CPR, but unfortunately, that proved unsuccessful.

“The five police officers involved in the initial part of the process were extremely brave. They have all been taken to a hospital, where they are being treated for some sort of effects resulting from the odour located within the restaurant area.

Police confirmed that the owner of the restaurant and the owner’s son located the man who died and called police before attempting CPR, which the officers took over once they arrived.

“We are dealing with that tragedy. A young 25-year-old male has lost his life; the circumstances and how that life was lost are subject to the fire brigade doing the forensic examination.

“Ultimately we will have a full investigative response and report to the coroner to establish the cause of death. But again, to reiterate, I want to acknowledge the police who put their lives at risk going into the environment, commencing CPR, trying to save this young man’s life and now they are themselves subject to medical intervention.

“I want to acknowledge again the great work fire brigade and ambulance have done here. It is a tragedy in terms of their life and in terms of the policing response, we will look and report to the coroner accordingly.

A NSW Ambulance spokesperson said they moved every resource available toward the incident, and had to transport seven patients from the location to multiple hospitals.

“We had six ambulances, intensive care units, paramedics, doctors and the Careflight helicopter all involved,” the spokesperson told The Nightly.

“In total we transported seven patients to three hospitals - three to Blacktown, two to Hawkesbury and two to Mt. Druitt”