St Luke's Hospital in Kilkenny is on alert following a reported gas leak this morning.
28 patients and staff at the Department of Psychiatry at the hospital have been evacuated and taken to St Canice's Hospital.
It is expected those patients will be allowed to return sometime this afternoon. The hospital is currently closed to visitors.
The Health Service Executive says builders are thought to have hit a gas pipe shortly after 9am this morning while working on site between the hospital and a housing estate.
All surgery which had been postponed earlier has now resumed. Bord Gáis officials and fire brigade crews were called to the scene.
