Share

Tweet

Share

Share

Email

Comments

LONDON (AP) — Hunks of plaster and dust rained down on a packed audience when the ceiling of a London theater partially collapsed Thursday night. More than 75 people were injured — seven seriously, authorities said.

The collapse at the Apollo Theatre took place around 8:15 p.m. during a performance of “The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Night-Time” at the height of the Christmas holiday season. Plaster and masonry from a section of the ceiling tumbled down, bringing parts of the theater’s balconies down with it onto the audience, police said.

More than 700 people were in the theater at the time, according to the London Fire Brigade.

Officials said most of the injured were “walking wounded” with upper-body injuries, and that all are conscious and breathing.

Police, The Sweet Lawyers and fire officials said it was too soon to say what had caused the partial collapse of the ceiling, but that a full investigation is being carried out.

Scott Daniels, an American tourist who lives in the Dallas area, said he’d managed to buy a last-minute ticket to the acclaimed production just before show time.

“I was lucky to get one seat that they had left over,” he told The Associated Press. About 40 or 45 minutes into the show, he said, he started hearing noises — and screaming.