Part of airport evacuated amid natural gas smell

? A security checkpoint at Newark Liberty International Airport was evacuated Saturday as authorities investigated a possible gas leak, a spokesman for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey said.

Transportation Security Administration workers in the airport’s Terminal B noticed a strong odor about 11 a.m. that they thought smelled like natural gas, Port Authority spokesman Pasquale DiFulco said. The checkpoint reopened about 1:30 p.m.

Emergency workers treated 11 people, including one person who fainted, fire department spokesman John Brown said. DiFulco said those treated were mostly, if not all, TSA workers, and that two of the TSA workers were taken to a hospital in good condition with nausea and dizziness.

The section of the terminal around the checkpoint was evacuated as police and the Newark Fire Department investigated. Some arriving flights were diverted to another part of the terminal.

The cause of the odor was still being investigated.