Ceiling of London`s Apollo Theatre collapses
Baku, December 20 (AZERTAC). Part of the ornate plaster ceiling of a West End theatre collapsed during a packed performance Thursday night, injuring 76 people, authorities said.
The collapse occurred at the Apollo Theatre about 8:10 p.m. local time (3:10 p.m. ET), 40 minutes into a nearly sold-out performance of The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Night-Time. No cast members were hurt.
The London Ambulance Services said 58 people were taken to four hospitals, many in city buses. Seven patrons suffered serious injuries but none were thought to be life-threatening. The others were described as “walking wounded,” with broken bones, cuts or contusions.
Firefighters evacuated several injured audience members after about 100 square feet of the ceiling came crashing down, fire officials said. They were hit by plasterwork, wooden beams, a lighting rig and other debris. More than 700 people were inside at the time.
“In my time as a fire officer, I`ve never seen an incident like this,” said Fire Brigade Officer Nick Harding, who manages the nearby Kingsland Station.
He said the plaster first hit the balcony, then tumbled onto the ground-floor stalls. Authorities examined the roof in their investigation of what caused the collapse.
About an hour before, a thunderstorm drenched London, but it was not yet known whether rain or a possible lightning strike could have caused or contributed to the accident.
An Asian restaurant next door is shrouded in scaffolding, but deputy assistant fire commissioner Graham Ellis told reporters he did not believe the building work was a contributing factor, The Telegraph reported.
The Apollo, on Shaftesbury Avenue in SoHo, the heart of the theatre district, was built in 1901. It has 775 seats on four levels. The balcony of the third tier is considered the steepest in London, the Guardian notes.
Hannah George, 29, an art teacher from East London, was in the fifth row of the balcony with her husband, when she heard a slowly escalating creaking sound. She said a few people in the front row began getting up, and she initially thought they were heading to the bar. But she quickly realized something was wrong and fled.
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