26 November 2023 , 19:25
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Players and fans were evacuated from the World Snooker Championship in York after a fire alarm went off.
The alarm went off just before the evening session of matches at the Barbican Centre in the Yorkshire city. The round of 32 game between Shaun Murphy and Hossein Vafaei, as well as Ali Carter's clash with Matthew Selt were both temporarily suspended as the fire brigade attended the scene.
The World Snooker Tour released a statement soon after the incident began, revealing firefighters were investigating a potential fire as they confirmed the arena had been evacuated.
The statement read: "Play for this evening’s session has been delayed with the Fire Brigade on site investigating a potential fire. The building has been evacuated. We will provide an update as soon as possible."
Around 40 minutes after the alarm went off, it was reported the fire had been extinguished, with the building ventilated. Play is set to restart at 8.00pm, with the World Snooker Tour confirming a small fire had been found.
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A statement read: "The Fire Brigade identified a small fire in the reception of the York Barbican. It has now been put out and the building has been adjudged as safe for fans and players to return. The ambition is to get play underway at 8pm. We will provide further updates if this changes."
The Barbican Centre in York was evacuated ahead of the evening session of the UK Championship (Twitter / @EirePaul)Fans were left rubbing shoulders with players, pundits and referees as everyone in the arena made their way to the exits. That included snooker legend Ronnie O'Sullivan, who was appearing on Eurosport as the alarm sounded. O'Sullivan looked concerned as host Radzi Chinyanganya announced that coverage would have to be stopped amid the evacuation.
"Now we've just been told unfortunately there's going to be an evacuation inside the arena due to a potential fire. So for health and safety reasons we might actually need to leave you," Chinyanganya said.
"Now finger's crossed that isn't going to affect things too much in terms of the actual play itself. It hasn't been announced yet whether it will affect the audience or simply if it will affect us.
"As soon as we get an update on that, we'll bring that right to you. Just for the time being, we're going to leave you on a shot of the arena and we will be exiting temporarily. As soon as we can give you any update of exactly what happens, we'll let you know."
Earlier in the day, Zhang Anda defeated Elliot Slessor 6-5 in their Round of 32 clash. Luca Bercel also progressed into the next round after defeating Yuan Sijun 6-4 in their match.