Shar­lene Ram­per­sad

Heavy winds and tor­ren­tial rains caused a stage set up for the for­mal open­ing of the Chil­dren's Hos­pi­tal, in Cou­va to col­lapse.

There were no im­me­di­ate re­ports of any in­juries and the func­tion was can­celled about an hour be­fore its sched­uled start.

Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar was among a host of dig­ni­taries sched­uled to at­tend the event.

Wit­ness­es said around 2.10 pm, be­fore the Prime Min­is­ter ar­rived, the rain be­gan to fall heav­i­ly.

Gusty winds be­gan pound­ing the south­ern side of the fa­cil­i­ty.

"Peo­ple start­ed to move from the back of the stage to the front so they won't get wet. There is an ex­it ramp from the front of the stage but peo­ple start­ed to run when pieces of met­al start­ed to fall. The tar­pau­lin that was used to make a roof over the stage col­lapsed," an eye­wit­ness said.

Over 45 chil­dren were in­vit­ed to the event and they were the first to be evac­u­at­ed.

"The stage was im­me­di­ate­ly cleared. Pa­trons made a 20 feet dash from the stage to the hos­pi­tal build­ing. When the canopy start­ed to crash down, peo­ple start­ed to run," the wit­ness said. Most ran up the ramp and ex­it­ed to the back. Per­son­nel im­me­di­ate­ly mo­bilised shut­tles to bring the chil­dren to the cov­ered area.

Con­tact­ed yes­ter­day, Mau­risa Find­lay, com­mu­ni­ca­tions man­ag­er from the Hous­ing De­vel­op­ment Cor­po­ra­tion, said the func­tion was post­poned as the Per­sad-Bisses­sar said she will no longer be at­tend­ing.

Find­lay said they will resched­ule the open­ing for a lat­er date.