Apollo ceiling ‘sound’ despite collapse

Surveyors have said the ceiling of the Apollo Theatre in London is “sound” after 80 people were injured, seven of them seriously, when sections of it collapsed on the audience during a packed show.

Eyewitnesses described “chaos and panic” as parts of the theatre “began to crumble down” around them just after 8pm on Thursday.

Around 10 square metres of plaster from the Grade II-listed West End theatre plummeted onto the stalls below, dragging a section of the balcony with it, striking members of the audience and filling the theatre with thick dust.