Shoppers at Eldon Square in Newcastle city centre were evacuated on Monday, November 2, after a pre-planned training exercise triggered alarms and a tannoy announcement just after 9am.
Staff and shoppers were told to leave the building, causing confusion among some visitors who took to social media to ask what was happening.
Confusion among shoppers
One shopper said: "Eldon Square has been evacuated. Not sure why, just said incident."
Another added: "I happened to walk through Eldon Square as they ran a serious incident drill. Now I'm stuck with the staff."
Training exercise confirmed
Eldon Square has confirmed the evacuation was for a training exercise. The shopping complex reopened to shoppers again just after 9.20am.
An Eldon Square spokesperson said: "Eldon Square can confirm that a pre-planned training exercise took place at the centre this morning.
"The routine exercise was carried out as part of our ongoing commitment to maintaining the highest standards of health and safety. The safety and wellbeing of our visitors, retailers and colleagues is always our number one priority, and we regularly undertake training exercises to ensure our procedures remain robust and effective."
