[Leica] Strange alkaline battery behaviour

[douglas.sharp at gmx.de (Douglas Sharp)]

It sounds like an urbam myth, and I probably wouldn't 
have believed it if someone else had told me it happened.

Last night there was a loud bang on my office desk and 
an alkaline AA battery lying quietly all by itself 
suddenly started leaking its innards - a smeary 
brownish gunge - on my desk.

I had tested the battery earlier in the day, and it was 
ok (only recently purchased).

Earlier today, the was a similar bang from the battery 
compartment of the motor drive of my Leica SL2Mot - the 
same had happened again with one of the cells. All the 
other 9 batteries were ok, but this one had obviously 
decided to commit suicide.

Has anyone else had problems like this?

None of the batteries were shorted and none of them 
were under any kind of load at the time.

Cheers
Douglas