Part of a building's facade in Marbella came loose and fell on the street in broad daylight last Thursday afternoon. There were fortunately no ... people passing by at that time.
The incident happened on the central Calle Ortega y Gasset at 1.45pm. The residential building, known as Atrium and accessed via Calle Pablo Casals, features terraces and balconies formed by cantilevered concrete slabs, which project from the main facade.
Several slabs came loose on the fifth floor, "presumably because the anchors were removed during construction work", as the town hall said.
As they fell, they ended up partially breaking through the building's cladding at second-floor level and subsequently striking the first-floor cantilever with great force. This lower structure, which protrudes significantly towards the street compared with the upper floors, absorbed the impact and sustained significant damage, in turn tearing away part of its own cladding and affecting the ground-floor retail area.
Crews from the Marbella fire brigade and police rushed to the scene. They cordoned off the area to ensure the safety of passersby. The firefighters focused on securing the facade, removing unstable elements and ensuring, "on a temporary basis", that the structure is not at risk of further collapse.