Lucky escape as restaurant wall collapses

TRAGEDY almost struck at a Limassol restaurant on Sunday when a wall fell down, injuring two of the 150 patrons eating there.

The two suffered light injuries while the rest were lucky to escape as the eastern wall of the old building fell towards the outside of the restaurant.

The restaurant, To Diadirideo, is a listed building on Ayios Andreas Street in Limassol. At around 6pm on Sunday, the eastern wall of the brick building collapsed, injuring one man on the leg and causing breathing difficulties to another, while the remaining 150 customers darted out, escaping injury. The two injured, a Greek Cypriot and Filipino man, were rushed to Limassol General Hospital where they were treated for minor injuries.

The restaurant owner, Nicos Nicolaou, maintained that the collapse was caused by construction work on a new building next door. The wall started cracking last week as a result of the works, he said. He allegedly informed the contractors of the problem but no protective measures had been taken.

If the wall had caved inwards instead of outwards, there could have been many victims in the packed restaurant.

Officials from the Labour Department closed off the area yesterday, while construction work on the site next door stopped. On closer inspection of the site, one official said the wall needed support structures to protect it from the vibrations caused by the work.

Labour Department official Andreas Kaloyirou said construction work would have to be stopped until the contractor, the owner and architect sat down to make a safety plan to anticipate any possible dangers.

The head of the Limassol Fire Service, Christakis Schizas, said yesterday the first word to the emergency services was that many victims had been crushed from the collapse. Luckily, when they arrived and removed all the debris, there were none.

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