Customers and staff at a Pizza Express restaurant miraculously escaped unhurt after the ceiling collapsed during service on Sunday.
A worker said she heard a ‘massive bang’ before the ceiling ‘started coming down’ inside Quayside shopping centre shortly before 4pm at Salford Quays.
Diners in the restaurant next door, Turtle Bay, said they began to smell smoke and felt the floor shake shortly before.
The rest of the building was evacuated after the incident triggered a fire alarm.
Footage from the aftermath appeared to show a large section of the ceiling torn off from the first floor and hit the ground.
Paramedics, police and fire crews quickly arrived at the scene and other parts of the shopping centre were reopened by the evening.
The Pizza Express restaurant is below a Virgin Active gym and a member of staff suggested its clients had previously been heard dropping weights.
Speaking of the moment the ceiling began collapsing, she told Manchester Evening News: ‘People just got up and ran out, there were little kids screaming.’
‘It was the scariest thing I’ve been through. People were going out the front and through the main centre.
‘I think one person was hurt but not badly. The emergency services were here straight away. It was really frightening.’
Pizza Express said the health and safety of its customers and staff is ‘of the utmost importance’ and that the company is helping the authorities to investigate the incident.
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