John Lewis in Nottingham flooded in hot water pipe burst
- Published
The John Lewis store is one of Victoria Centre's biggest shops
John Lewis's Nottingham city centre store has flooded after 80,000 litres of hot water leaked from a ruptured heating pipe.
"Cascading" water at a temperature of about 80C [176F] brought down a suspended ceiling at the Victoria Centre store at about 22:40 BST on Tuesday.
It poured through from a rooftop room, leaving the top floor under three inches of water.
Stock was "significantly" damaged.
The building itself was also damaged, and the shop remained closed on Wednesday.
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One firefighter said: "We were struggling to find the source of the leak.
"Crews were deployed to salvage stock, [but staff] are going to be busy for a number of days."
The damage was not evident from the outside of the building
A spokeswoman for John Lewis said the store would remain closed on Wednesday as there was no power or lighting.
She added: "We are assessing the damage and have already started the clean-up operation, which will continue as our partners arrive for work this morning."