Walmart evacuated, several sickened after foul odor permeates Pennsylvania store

LOWER NAZARETH TWP., Pennsylvania (WPVI) -- Shoppers had to be evacuated from a Walmart store in Northampton Co., Pennsylvania after a foul odor inside the store got several people sick.

It happened Sunday afternoon at the Walmart on Route 248 in Lower Nazareth Township.

Authorities say nine people were taken to the hospital.

They are all said to be okay.

Police believe the putrid smell came from animal repellent that had been returned by a customer.

Customer Vincent Ferraro told WFMZ-TV he was inside the store when a message came over the public address system.

"They said all the employees get to the back of the store and then everybody got in a quick panic and they made us all go out the front," Ferrero said. "There was a lot of people outside coughing, a lot of people got loaded onto hospital beds or the gurneys. They moved them out from there."