Engineers are trying to determine whether or not a Sydney shopping centre building is safe after the carpark partially collapsed, forcing authorities to evacuate the centre.
A report on the ninemsn website says emergency services were called to the Westfield Eastgardens shopping centre in Pagewood at around 8:15am on Tuesday morning.
Police said officers are assessing the damage and that engineers were trying to work out if there had been any structural problems associated with the building.
It appears a beam on the roof dislodged. Photos posted on Twitter showed a McDonalds sign had fallen in the collapse.
Fortunately, it appears no one was has been trapped or injured and police do not believe there is any immediate danger to the public, according to a statement.
A number of cars were parked near the section of the roof which collapsed, a police spokesman has told ninemsn, but it was not known whether any had been damaged.
“There were a number of people, staff and customers, at the shopping centre and some of them had parked in the part of the car park that was affected,” the spokesman is quoted as saying in the report.
Former New South Wales Premier Kristina Keneally indicated in a tweet she had been present when the roof had collapsed.
“I’m at Westfield Eastgardens. Part of the centre has just collapsed. All inside being evacuated,” Keneally tweeted.
Keneally, who says she was at the opposite end of the centre at the time of the collapse, said she had been able to see that a small section of the building had come down from the outside.
Authorities say the centre will remain closed until further notice.
