Test evacuation at Shopping Centre

Store staff and customers stand outside the Rochdale Exchange Shopping Centre after it was evacuated this afternoon.

Customers and staff at stores at Rochdale Exchange Shopping Centre were evacuated for around half an hour this afternoon (Monday 10 November) as part of what the  manager described as a routine test.

Shoppers and employees had not been told about the test and were surprised when the alarm bells sounded inside stores and in the main precinct and they were ushered outside by security guards.

As the photo shows, people were literally left out in the cold as people waited around on Yorkshire Street following the evacuation. They were sent to an assembly point before being given the all clear to return to their stores. 

Shopping Centre manager Lorenzo O'Reilly said that it was part of the procedure not to inform staff that the evacuation would take place. "It is a standard test for shopping centres of this size to carry out a full evacuation. We have to carry out two evacuations a year and staff are not informed when they are going to occur."