Diners at a London restaurant were shocked to see a rock falling from a building just inches away. A gust of wind caused a huge chunk of stone to break off from the building and land near their chairs, leaving a large dent in the pavement, the Daily Mail reported.
The incident happened at Otto Menzo Cafe in Kensington when a woman dropped a rock just millimetres away from hitting her chair, with people at the scene describing the impact as “like an earthquake”.
The woman who survived the crash was there to meet a friend and stood there for an hour after the incident. A nearby dog was covered in dust and the rockfall had ripped a hole in the stone slab below. Restaurant staff asked Emma Baxter-Wright to leave her table, fearing more rocks might fall.
Fire engines rushed to the scene and firefighters were stunned to see huge boulders on the ground and dust all around. They sealed off the area to prevent any unforeseen incidents.
Restaurant owners say they're shocked
Cafe owner Francesco Cicoria, 58, was also shocked to see the stones on the ground, leaving a gaping hole in the building where the stones had originally been placed.
He told the Daily Mail that he had not expected anything like that to happen. “I never expected it. There were no warning signs. It just fell from above. It was unexpected. It was a shock,” he said.
“Now, every time I walk I look up and pay attention. He said something like this happens very rarely — once in a million,” he added.
Cicoria recalled an incident where he had been sitting at the same table 20 minutes earlier when they made room for a customer: “I was sitting there until 20 minutes before that, and luckily a woman came and asked for a seat, so I got up, but if not… it would have been horrible,” Cicoria said.
The owner of Emma's dust-covered dog Bingo told the paper that if Emma's wheelchair had been a few inches to the left, she would have died. “One foot to the left and she definitely would have died. You can see the holes in the pavement – it's not ideal,” Coco Cottam said.
Another woman, who was visiting her aunt who works in a cafe, said the incident made her afraid to sit outside. “It felt like an earthquake. Does this happen every day in London?” she said.
