On Wednesday, 22nd August, shoppers were told to evacuate Silverburn Shopping Centre after several people began to feel unwell; the alarm was raised to alert emergency services who treated people at the scene.

At around 12:40 pm on Wednesday, the alarm was raised at Silverburn Shopping Centre when many shoppers broke into sudden fits of coughing. The alarm alerted Police Scotland who quickly arrived at the scene along with ambulance services, asking people if they had any troubles breathing properly.

Treatment

Medical services began treating around fifty victims promptly upon arrival at the crowded shopping centre. As well as the numerous shoppers who required treatment at the scene, six people were hospitalised for precautionary measures.

Commenting on the commotion, one of the shoppers present stated:

“Outside, it was just chaotic – it was absolute pandemonium”

Several people tweeted about the incident, to which Silverburn quickly responded, though they failed to mention what had caused shoppers to fall ill in the first place. However, later on it was reported that the “chemical smell” had likely been caused by paint fumes due to the renovations that have been taking place in the shopping centre. It has been suspected that the fumes made their way into the ventilation system, causing slight respiratory trouble to shoppers.

Aftermath

As a result of the chaos, nearby roads were closed for approximately an hour and a half to allow emergency services to clear the area quickly and efficiently. This included Junction 2 of the M77 in Barrhead, though Traffic Scotland stated that the closure had been lifted by around 16:00 pm. Furthermore, at 17:00, it was announced that Silverburn had been re-opened and had been thoroughly checked and was declared safe.

On their Twitter account, Silverburn stated:

“We can confirm the centre is now fully open. Extensive tests have been carried out and we have been given the all-clear by emergency services to re-open the centre”

Despite Silverburn’s regular updates, it has still not been officially confirmed by the shopping centre what the initial cause of the incident was.

 

By Emma Logan, Editor of Wellbeing

Sources: BBC News, The Evening Times, The Independent

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