7 Hospitalized After Carbon Monoxide Leak At Long Island Mall

HUNTINGTON STATION, N.Y. (CBSNewYork) -- There was a carbon monoxide scare at a mall on Long Island.

The carbon monoxide leak happened around 8 a.m. Wednesday at the Walt Whitman Mall in Hutington Station.

Suffolk County Police Chief Stewart Cameron said the leak came from construction equipment inside the former Legal Sea Food restaurant that is under renovation.

"It appears as though some of the construction equipment that was in use in there, specifically a diesel fuel heater and a diesel fuel camper, those kinds of equipment could generate carbon monoxide," Cameron said.

The poisonous gas spread to Panera Bread, where 10 employees and patrons were inside.

Seven were rushed to the hospital and treated for non-life threatening injuries.

"People were feeling ill," Cameron said. "Generally if you have a lot of people felling ill in an establishment all at once like that carbon monoxide should be expected."

Panera Bread was closed for hours after the incident.

In February 2014, a manager died and 28 people were hospitalized for carbon monoxide poisoning at the Legal Sea Food.