The whole of Centrale Shopping Centre and its car park in Croydon town centre was evacuated today after a routine fire alarm test.
The centre’s car park was also closed, leading to reports of long queues of cars waiting to enter and exit the site.
A local Croydon transport Twitter page tweeted an alert this morning (31 October).
Please be advised that centrale shopping centre in #Croydon is currently being evacuated. The centrale car park is also closed. More details to follow as we receive them.
— Transport4Bromley&Croydon (@transp4bro_cro) October 31, 2018
Both the shopping centre and car park are said to have reopened in the last two hours.
Some sources have reported that the evacuation was due to someone falsely triggering the fire alarm while other rumours circulated of a fire.
But a spokesperson for the shopping centre said that the fire alarm was scheduled and said that: “In future, we will try to find out about these things in advance.”
Transport4Bromley&Croydon later tweeted:
Centrale shopping centre in #Croydon has now reopened following a routine fire test earlier on today. Apologies for any inconvenience. The car park has also reopened.
— Transport4Bromley&Croydon (@transp4bro_cro) October 31, 2018
The London Fire Brigade confirmed that they were not called to attend any incident at the shopping centre this morning.