Jakarta, January 15: At least 75 people have been injured after a mezzanine floor at Indonesia's stock exchange suddenly collapsed into the lobby in central Jakarta on Monday. The victims went under a shower of glass and other debris and were later pulled out on stretchers. As per details by a Jakarta police spokesman, the collapse was an accident and not the result of an explosion.
Reports stated that a cascade of glass, metal and other material crashed onto the ground floor when part of the mezzanine level gave way. Jakarta Post quoted an official as saying that the floor collapsed onto the ground level of the bourse's Tower 2. The Indonesia stock exchange later reopened for the afternoon session following the incident.
75 injured at the moment in the list outside #Indonesia Stock Exchange building in #Yakarta, where the second floor of the lobby collapsed this afternoon. Bourse already reopened. pic.twitter.com/hJlKTvYprG
— Ricardo Pérez-Solero (@RPerezSolero) January 15, 2018
Ngeri 😓 pic.twitter.com/WLXFVk93PL
— Muhammad Ibnu (@Inoeshin) January 15, 2018
Reports stated that the floor collapsed a few minutes after the first trading session ended. There were about hundreds of office workers heading out during their lunchtime. As soon as the floor collapsed, other people in the building were evacuated immediately. However, the cause of the collapse is still not known. Soon after the incident, the police officials cordoned off the multi-storey complex. Pictures from the scene showed a metal structure that had collapsed around a Starbucks cafe near the entrance to the building in the heart of Jakarta's business district.
The building is one of a two-tower complex which was targeted in a car bombing by Islamist militants in September 2000, reports said. A spokeswoman for Jakarta's Siloam Hospital said it had received 28 victims from the exchange, and the seriousness of their injuries was still being assessed. Meanwhile, reports quoted a college student saying that she felt a tremor just before a floor collapsed into the building's lobby, with the debris hitting and injuring some of her friends.
(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Jan 15, 2018 06:01 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).