The local government of Lapu-Lapu City has ordered the temporary shutdown of the food park whose steel beams collapsed Sunday night.
Police said 12 individuals were hospitalized after the center portion of the food park made out of steel and plastic sheets collapsed due to the rain.
“They sustained head contusions, minor bruises and abrasions in their arms and neck part of their bodies,” said the city’s disaster risk reduction and management chief Nagiel Bañacia.
Bañacia said that based on their initial investigation, there was a problem in the structure of the roof. “There was a possible defect in the design that needs to be further investigated,” Bañacia added.
The closure will be lifted once the Office of the Building Official and the City Business Processing and Licensing Office will finish their probe.
This food park just opened to the public last night.
Witchtofen Heinrich Intong, who hosted the event, said he heard a loud thud while he was lying down and waiting to come back on stage while the band was playing.
“A little while now, the body aches and swellings have gone away.
But thank God we are all safe. (It is just now that my body pains have come out and inflammation. But thank God we are safe),” he said.
He also notes the defect on the food park’s roofing.
“It’s thin paper. It was weighed down by the water because you can’t get the rain water straight (Thin and a bit hard. It was too weighted by the water and the structure is straight with no passage for the rainwater),” Intong added.
The management of the food park has not issued a statement yet since the incident.
Source: ABS-CBN News