Sizeable chunks of a ceiling in a room at the San Gwann local council offices collapsed over the weekend, the council discovered this morning.

The incident could have been far more serious if the room was not empty at the time: chunks of masonry fell over desks and computers used for IT lessons.

The local council offices occupy a former residence in R. Caruana Dingli Street, in which a room has already been condemned by an architect and closed off.

The council is itself seeking to move to new purpose-built premises in Gnien Karin Grech, opposite the parish church.

Coincidentally, the council held an extraordinary meeting to discuss the project just last Friday, before the council was closed for the weekend, and approved the plans in principle. Earlier that week, Infrastructure Minister Joe Mizzi had advised mayor Etienne Bonello DuPuis that the new council building will be built as planned, albeit with some revisions from the original plans.

“I hope that the new project will go ahead at the earliest to ensure uninterrupted service to the community,” the mayor noted on his Facebook page, where he uploaded pictures of the ceiling collapse.