GATEWAY Theatre of Shopping  centre management confirmed that this morning’s evacuation at the busy mall was just a drill. The evacuation drill was done within a few minutes with all relevant emergency and mall security present.

Staff and shoppers were prevented from entering Gateway while the drill was being carried out.

There was speculation the evacuation was a bomb scare, but management told Northglen News that this was not true. In September last year, the mall was evacuated for two hours following a scare that turned out to be a hoax.

Shops in and around the centre have opened for trading as normal. In July this year, the mall was in the spotlight after a six-year-old boy’s foot was trapped in an escalator.