A shopping centre’s ceiling caved in in Doha, Qatar on Wednesday night, hurting at least two shoppers and raising concerns about mall security.
Chunks of plaster fell down on a busy open area in Landmark Mall, just outside Starbucks Cafe and Argo Tea Cafe, not far from the children’s play area and food court.
The mall’s head of security, Ahmed Hassna, was quoted as saying that two people, including a baby, had been hurt.
The Qatar Ministry of Interior reported the incident on its official twitter account, with the following message: “Civil Defence acts on safety measures after collapse of a section of plaster from ceiling at Landmark Mall”.
Shoppers in the mall said the incident frightened them but security personnel were quick to take control of the situation.
“There was a lot of debris on the floor,” Anna Kennedy told Doha News. She recalls she was exiting the food court when a loud crash startled her.
“I don’t believe anyone was hurt, not that I had seen. I think people had just got a fright. The security were great, they got everyone away from the area and were quick in doing so. Then the alarms went off and everyone was ushered out of the mall.”
Another shopper, Emma Louise Kennedy, said she was leaving the shopping centre when she heard the fire alarm. “I started to run out but no one even moved. Everyone seemed to make their way to where the accident was.”
It was almost a year ago, on April 2013, when a similar incident happened in the same mall. The ceiling of the nearby Haagen Dazs ice cream shop also collapsed, though no one was hurt. Landmark Mall is managed by the same company that owns Vilagio Mall, where a fire was reported in May 2012. 19 people died, including children.
