Lakeside Miller & Carter floating restaurant starts to sink

The Miller & Carter steakhouse restaurant has been partially submerged in the waters of Alexandra Lake at the shopping centre in West Thurrock

A floating restaurant has partially sunk into a lake at a major UK shopping centre.

Pictures showed part of the Miller & Carter restaurant, located in a converted paddle steamer at Lakeside in Essex, starting to submerge.

Essex County Fire and Rescue Service said it heard about the sinking at 11:00 GMT but crews were not required to attend.

The shopping centre said about half a dozen staff were on board.

A Miller & Carter spokesman said refunds would be issued "as quickly as possible"

A spokesman for Miller & Carter Lakeside said: "Regrettably, due to the scale of damage we were forced to close immediately.

"Our priority is our guests, and our teams are working hard to contact everyone who holds a booking with us to inform them of the unforeseeable incident and issue refunds as quickly as possible."

A further post on the branch's Facebook page reported the restaurant would be closed until "further notice due to structural issues".

The page said the restaurant was refurbished in October 2019.

Evacuation

Lakeside's centre director Howard Oldstein said the boat appeared to have stopped sinking and was sitting on the water at about a "30% decline".

He told the BBC that about half a dozen staff were preparing to open for lunch when water started to "ingress".

Mr Oldstein said they shut down all energy supplies before evacuating the restaurant.

"The important thing is to make sure it is safe and we are discussing that with the restaurant's owners," he said, adding that the cause of the incident was as yet unknown.

Lakeside centre director Howard Oldstein said the boat appeared to have stopped sinking but said it was too early to say whether any damage could be repaired

The Lakeside Shopping Centre is made up of dozens of retail outlets and restaurants

The rest of the shopping centre, apart from a section of the Boardwalk, was open to customers.

Ben Stanley, manager at the nearby Casco Lounge restaurant, said the shopping centre "quickly" cordoned off an area beside the boat.

He said: "There is a security guard in the way blocking people from getting through, but they have now opened up the walkway."