Ceiling collapse at London's Apollo Theatre injures at least 45

[News_Editor]

LONDON, ENGLAND (BNO NEWS) -- More than 45 people were injured Thursday when part of a ceiling collapsed during a performance attended by hundreds of people at the Apollo Theatre in London, emergency services said. A number of people were initially trapped but later freed.

The incident occurred at approximately 8:15 p.m. local time on Thursday when a large part of a ceiling collapsed during a performance of the "Curious Incident Of The Dog in the Night-time." Some 700 people were in the theater when the ceiling came down, covering some of them in dust and debris.

The Metropolitan Police Service (MPS), better known as Scotland Yard, said more than 45 people had been injured. At least 40 of those, described as 'walking wounded,' were being treated at the nearby Gielgud Theatre, while a bus was being used to transport more seriously injured to hospitals.

"Five people [are] seriously injured. They have been taken to central London hospitals. [We are] not aware of any fatalities at this stage," Scotland Yard said. A London Fire Brigade spokesman added that a number of people who had been trapped by the debris were rescued within an hour.

"Firefighters are on scene working to make the theater safe and special search and rescue crews are also there," the spokesman said. The Fire Brigade earlier said that eight fire engines were at the scene in addition to a large number of ambulances and police vehicles.

(Copyright 2013 by BNO News B.V. All rights reserved. Info: [email protected].)

[NCFC]

Some comedian brought the house down?

[farangbanok]

................. or maybe "Apollo has landed" .....

[soi41]

Now we are just waiting for the Thai-haters here to find a way to blame this on Thailand and the Thais!!

[rotary]

Lets go for blaming Chinese building materials this time

[Basil B]

The theatre had been almost full with 720 people watching the performance. Of the 76 injured, 58 were taken to four London hospitals but there were no life-threatening injuries.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-25459567

[darren84310]

"Curious Incident Of The Dog in the Night-time."

They managed to get 700 people to turn up and watch that?.... bet Suthep's on the phone for some tips off the marketing manager right now.

[tingtongteesood]

Now we are just waiting for the Thai-haters here to find a way to blame this on Thailand and the Thais!!

Thank you for your most exceedingly pointless comment that wasted 2 seconds of my day

[Scott]

Now we are just waiting for the Thai-haters here to find a way to blame this on Thailand and the Thais!!

Thank you for your most exceedingly pointless comment that wasted 2 seconds of my day

Your doing well if you have managed to be a member and have only wasted 2 seconds today.

Now, let's stay on topic, please.

[Jay Sata]

There were reports of water dripping from the ceiling prior to the collapse and there had been a bout of heaving rain or a thunderstorm just before the event.

Most likely there was a leak in the roof and the ceiling had become saturated. The extra weight of the water plus the weakening of the wet plaster would have resulted in this accident.