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Apollo Roof Collapse
Nearly eighty people were injured, seven of them seriously, when the ceiling of central London’s Apollo Theatre collapsed during a packed performance Dec.19.
Photo: AP Photo /PA, Dominic Lipinski
The Apollo Theater in central London partially collapsed Thursday night during a performance at the height of the 2013 Christmas season, with police saying there were "a number" of casualties.
At least 700 people were evacuated from the building on Shaftesbury Avenue, with 51 of them requiring hospital treatment.
A rescue operation began at 8:15 p.m. London time, when the building’s ceiling fell on an audience for the National Theatre production of “The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time.”
BBC News reported that witnesses saw people emerging from the building covered in dust.
It said: “Actors were seen to interrupt their performance to point at the ceiling and one witnesses reported that a performer shouted “watch out.”
The following morning an enquiry was opened to find out what happened at the 112-year-old, Grade II-listed building.