Sydney floods: Ceiling collapses in busy Westfield shopping centre as heavy rain hammers city

‘Well, I just nearly got killed by a collapsing roof in Westfield bondi junction,’ woman says

Pieces of ceiling fell in front of shoppers at a Westfield Centre in Sydney (James Valentine / Twitter)

Shoppers had a lucky escape after a ceiling collapsed at a busy shopping centre in Sydney as a storm lashed the city.

Chunks of the roof fell on escalators at Westfield Bondi Junction on Tuesday as torrential rain forced tens of thousands to flee their homes.

The Australian city has faced numerous flood warnings this month as stormy conditions swept down through eastern Australia and caused deadly and disruptive flooding.

On Tuesday, shoppers at the busy Westfield shopping centre in one of its suburbs shared images of parts of ceiling on the ground.

“This collapsing ceiling at Westfield Bondi Junction, missed me by two metres!” one man tweeted as he shared footage of a large chunk in front of him on an escalator.

Another woman said: “Well, I just nearly got killed by a collapsing roof in Westfield bondi junction. Just missed it.”

Heavy rain lashed Australia’s most popolous city from Monday morning, exceeding March’s mean rainfall of around 140mm and triggering snap evacuation orders in the southwest of the city.

Roads were flooded, cars submerged in northern beaches, millions told to avoid unnecessary travel on roads and trains cancelled amid the bad weather.

Two people - a 67-year-old mother and her 34-year-old son - were found dead near an abandoned car in a stormwater canal in Sydney, authorities said on Tuesday.

A total of 20 people have died in Queensland and New South Wales since storms first hit last month.

Professor Hilary Bambrick, an environmental expert, has called the country “underprepared” for extreme weatherdespite decades of warnings over the climate crisis and has urged it to do more to cope with freak events in the wake of the deadly floods.