A SOUTHAMPTON shopping centre was evacuated this afternoon following a fire alarm.
Eight fire engines rushed to WestQuay Centre after cooking fumes set off the alarms in Pizza Express at 12.48pm.
One shopper described the scene as "utter chaos" after the alarm and pictures show hundreds of people standing outside the centre.
Utter chaos in #Southampton as fire alarms go off, no info given @dailyecho @iSouthampton in #WestQuay pic.twitter.com/D8K5fvYkBD
— Jackie ✦Oceanauk✦ツ (@oceanauk) December 28, 2016
Hampshire Fire and Rescue Service say the incident was not as serious as initially thought, and was caused by "cooking fumes".
The crews in attendance were from St Mary’s, Hightown and Eastleigh.
#BellsDown: Firefighters attended #WestQuay shopping centre in #Southampton after cooking fumes set off a fire alarm at Pizza Express
— HampshireFireService (@Hants_fire) December 28, 2016
A WestQuay spokeswoman told the Daily Echo: "We can confirm part of the centre has been evacuated as a precaution following an alarm being triggered.
"The emergency services are now dealing with this.
"The safety of our staff and customers is our number one priority."
probably for the best that the fire alarm @Westquay isn't serious considering people walked past multiple fire exits to leave...
— Sarah Jane Burns (@sarahjb93) December 28, 2016
The spokesman went on to defend the shopping centre's proceedures, adding: "We have a robust protocol in place which ensures that our team responds to incidents as swiftly as possible, notifying the emergency services where appropriate.
"The team followed this protocol today and worked with the emergency services on site to resolve the issue quickly and safely.
"The safety of our customers and colleagues is our number one priority, and as such we keep our policies and procedures under constant review to ensure that we are effectively resourced to respond to such incidents."
WestQuay has now confirmed the shopping centre has reopened.
Video courtesy of Josh Douch.
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