SINGAPORE - Heavy rain on Wednesday brought down a small section of the ceiling at Westgate.
The mishap left a 1m-long hole in the fourth-floor ceiling of the Jurong East mall, Shin Min Daily News reported.
A shopkeeper told the Chinese daily that three or four men were walking near the area, and were almost hit by the fragments of the ceiling that fell. "It was raining heavily and the ceiling started leaking, more severely than usual. Suddenly there was a loud crash, and it turned out, a piece of plaster had fallen," the 26-year-old said.
Rainwater that overflowed onto the ceiling area caused part of the false ceiling to fall off, said Mr Eddie Lim, centre manager of Westgate. No one was hurt in the incident and the affected area was cleaned up about 15 minutes later, he said.
"Due to sudden heavy rain yesterday afternoon, some rainwater overflowed onto the Level 4 ceiling area. As a result, a narrow strip of the false ceiling on that level fell off after being exposed to the rainwater," Mr Lim said in a statement.
Westgate staff noticed the fallen piece of plaster board at about 4pm. "We immediately cordoned off the affected area and redirected shoppers away," he added.
He apologised for the inconvenience caused to the affected shoppers, and said that the mall is "putting steps in place to prevent a recurrence".
The fourth level of Westgate has a mix of lifestyle stores, F&B outlets and shops and services catering to kids. The mall opened last December.
