Drunkards nearly crushed as ceiling collapses in pub just as last orders are called

Middlesbrough: A stunned landlord was left with an almighty headache after his ceiling collapsed as he called time last night.

Customers were finishing up their pints when huge chunks of plaster collapsed on to the floor of the The Coronation in Middlesbrough.

One told the Evening Gazette: “I must admit, when I first heard the noise I thought a car had gone into the side of the pub off Acklam Road - that’s how loud it was.

“Everyone had a bit of a laugh about it when it happened, but thinking about it the next morning I realised that if there’d been a leak, the water could easily have spread to the ceiling where customers were sitting.

“It would have caused serious injury if it had come down on somebody’s head.

"If there had been a flood, maybe it shouldn’t have been open so soon.”

Around a dozen drinkers saw it come down in a cordoned off area of at about 11.10pm yesterday.

A burst pipe had caused water to soak the ceiling on Tuesday.

But the pub partially reopened on Wednesday - only allowing drinkers into one part of the bar.

A spokeswoman for brewery chain Marston’s, which runs the pub, said: "There was never going to be any health and safety risk, although I understand that customers were in the pub and saw the ceiling come in.

“The builders are currently in at the pub and it is expected to be open again by Friday lunch time.”

Nobody was injured.