Disabled mum left in Ipswich Empire Cinema during evacuation

A woman and her disabled mother were left inside a cinema after a fire alarm went off, she said.

Michelle Emmerson-Grey went to the Empire Cinema in Ipswich on Sunday with her mum, who has limited mobility.

She said "panic" and "fear" set in when she realised they were stuck inside along with a group of about eight others, although it turned out to be a false alarm.

Empire Cinemas has been contacted for comment.

Ms Emmerson-Grey said they both have disabilities and it was the first trip the pair had been on since the start of the pandemic, as her mother had been shielding.

She said: "We did a complete recce of the cinema before we bought our tickets, making sure we got the most accessible seats and that she'd be able to get there OK.

"The screen went off and it came up saying you must evacuate the building. So we went out the accessible route that we went in and there were us and several other people with walking aids and we were in a corridor thinking 'where do we go?'."

The group emerged into the cinema foyer after using an accessible lift but found it "completely deserted" and she said the shutters leading to the rest of the Buttermarket shopping centre, where the cinema is based, were closed.

She said it was "a ghost town" but people were still arriving in the cinema via a lift from the centre's carpark.

"We thought maybe something really is wrong and how are we going to get out and then the panic set in. It was chaos, absolute chaos," she said.

Ms Emmerson-Grey said that despite an apology from the duty manager she was concerned he did not seem to grasp the severity of what could have happened if there had been a fire.

"I'm worried they locked disabled people in the building, didn't check the building was clear. We had no way out, no guidance out, what's going on?

She was also concerned that the experience had knocked her mum's confidence going forward.

A spokesperson for the Buttermarket Shopping Centre said the alarm went off after a child hit an emergency button at 15:55 BST.

They said since the false alarm was identified within three minutes, the lift system was not shut off.

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