Police said on Saturday that more than 50 people suffered coughing, vomiting and shortness of breath due to irritant gas at a local festival tent in a German town.

Dozens were treated on the site in the Hessisch Oldendorf town in the northwestern state of Lower Saxony while three were hospitalized. 

Several people apparently threw so-called pepper balls on the ground, slowly releasing the gas into the air as they burst in a festival tent.

Police said they arrested two 20-year-old suspects as part of their investigation into the incident. 

The event, which started on Friday into the early hours of Saturday, was immediately evacuated by the police.

According to the German news agency DPA, 900 people had to leave the tent where the incident occurred. 

fb/dj (dpa, DW sources) 

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