Theatre-goers inside London’s Apollo have been recalling their tales of escape after parts of the historic venue’s ceiling began to crumble away.
Almost 80 people were injured, seven seriously.
Eyewitnesses described “chaos and panic” as parts of the roof “began to crumble down” around them.
Masonry and ornate plaster from the Grade II listed theatre plummeted on to the stalls below, dragging a section of the balcony with it, striking members of the packed audience and filling the theatre with clouds of thick dust.
More than 700 people were inside the Shaftesbury Avenue venue – which was 45 minutes into the National Theatre’s performance of The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Night-time – when members of the audience started screaming as it appeared parts of the ceiling caved in.
Andrew Howard-Smith, 68, said: “I saw the edge of the balcony come down, that’s what I saw. We were on the balcony below.
“In the production you had to hold on to the rail and lean over to see what was going on, and we were doing the same.
“Everybody must have got hold of the brass rail and just pushed it over, and then the edge came off. That was the only bit that came off, just the edge. It wasn’t the whole of the balcony, just the front 2ft.”
School worker Hannah George, 29, said: “It was about 40 minutes into the show, and the ceiling collapsed.
“We were in the balcony, about five rows from the front, and we saw a few people in the front of the balcony row get up and start moving towards the right. Very quickly, the second and third rows started moving all together. We wondered if this part of the show.
“Then I heard someone scream and you heard a shriek – then a chunk of the ceiling collapsed.
“It actually missed the balcony and must have hit people down below in the stalls – you couldn’t see anything down there.
“Very quickly ushers held the doors open. It wasn’t every man for himself, it was very ordered. There were people in front going, ‘You OK?’ and trying to get people out.
“There were people coming out who were more seriously injured. There were loads of people coming out shaking, and a fellow next to me had quite a badly bleeding arm and a ripped shirt.”
She described people seriously injured, including a man with blood all down his arm and a woman lying on the pavement outside “absolutely covered in glass”.
Cinema manager Steve George, 29, said he was level with the section of ceiling which is believed to have given way.
He said: “The room filled with dust straight away. I couldn’t see the people down below, and the initial thought was that it’s given way, it’s missed where we’re sitting. But then you realise there’s the stalls down there and it’s fallen on those people.”
He said emergency lights soon came on as people made for the exits.
“People were just walking quickly rather than pushing or shoving, it was fairly orderly,” he said. “We saw the people coming out, all covered in dust and blood.”