Published: Wednesday, 1st July, 2009 9:00am

Ceiling falls on shoppers

by Rose Harland

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The Tesco store in Crown Street

SHOPPERS fled in terror when chunks of the ceiling started raining down amid the groceries in Tesco.

Workmen carried out emergency repairs to try to get the closed Express store in Katesgrove ready to reopen today (Wednesday).

Lib ward councillor Warren Swaine said: 'I think the people in the shop at the time must have been quite shocked.

'When I looked through the door a whole section of the false ceiling seemed to have come down.'

Store duty manager Ameer Mujahideen said: 'It fell gradually and not all at once, making a loud noise, so there was time to move people out of the way.

'We had four members of staff and some customers in the store, but no shopper was in the area where the ceiling fell.

'Part of the ceiling collapsed but nobody was injured.'

Firefighters and police were called to the shop at the junction of Crown Street and London Street at 4pm on Saturday and evacuated it before securing electricity and water supplies.

Student accommodation company Unite opened 98 student flats above the shop in September and hospitality manager Andrew Greig said: 'Fortunately we don"t think the collapse has affected the buildings above.

'From what I have heard, it is the false acoustic ceiling that has come down. Tesco leases it from us but we don"t have anything to do with their interiors.' Since the shop opened it January it has proved popular with many but others have complained about parking problems and noise.

Tesco spokesman Adam Fisher said staff had responded quickly to the partial collapse and added: 'We sincerely apologise to customers there at the time and also for the ongoing inconvenience.

'We will re-open as soon as all safety works are completed. In the meantime we hope customers are able to access either the Napier Road or Portman Road Extra stores.'

The collapse has brought some good news to one person - Manjit Dhothar, manager of nearby rival convenience store Londis.

He said: 'We"ve been suffering since Tesco opened but after its ceiling fell in we have seen a bit of an uplift in sales.'