Gas oven explodes at AUT, students injured

An ambulance outside AUT where two people were treated after an explosion. Photo / Richard Robinson

Two students at AUT's cooking school were being treated after the oven they were using exploded during class this morning.

St John paramedics treated the girls for minor facial burn injuries after the explosion, about 9.20am at the university's city campus on Wellesley St.

Auckland City senior station officer Phil Grace said students in the cooking school were cooking on gas hobs. An oven below one of the units had somehow filled with gas, he said, which ignited.

"It caused the oven door to blow open and a bit of a gas explosion.

"Two female students got mild to moderate facial burns."

St John ambulance staff were quickly on the scene to administer treatment, he said.

The two girls were "a bit traumatised", he said, but should be okay.

The rest of the class were also shaken up. "I think they all got a big fright. A loud bang like that does tend to put you on edge."