Mall stampede: Gunshots from a 'steamer'

One person was hurt last night in a stampede at SM Megamall, in Metro Manila’s Mandaluyong City, as shoppers fled thinking the sounds they heard from an explosion caused by a malfunctioning siomai steamer were gunshots. 

“Around 7.25pm, a siomai steamer at SM Food Court in SM Megamall short-circuited, caus[ing] people to file out,” SM Supermalls posted on its Twitter account at 8.19pm. “All operations are [now] back to normal.”

This has contrasted with the police theory, however, with Senior Superintendent Florendo Quibuyen, chief of Mandaluyong City Police, telling radio dzBB that based on their initial investigation, the cause of the explosion was a lamp on the fourth floor.

The dzBB report also said that a woman was hurt as more people tried to rush out of the mall, and that she was taken to a nearby hospital by the rescue team of Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA).

Many shoppers had taken to social media during the incident, when the mall was on a three-day sale, voicing their fears of what they thought were gunshots.

It may be recalled that on January 26, tension also gripped SM Megamall as a band of robbers, armed with guns and hammers, staged a daring heist at a jewellery shop and fired shots in the air to create panic among shoppers.

[Image via Shutterstock]

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