Wembley workers evacuated after roof incident

Over three thousand workers were evacuated from the Wembley stadium site yesterday after a steel rafter weighing some 50 tonnes slipped from its position in the roof, contractor Multiplex said.

The GMB labour union said construction workers ran from the stadium after hearing a loud bang early yesterday.

Martin Tidd, UK managing director of Multiplex, said the rafter had only moved half-a-metre (19 inches) and described it as a minor incident.

All 3,500 workers on the site had been evacuated and an investigation had begun, he added.

"This has not affected the structure of the roof, or the stadium, neither of which has moved," he told reporters. "At this point we believe this could be a minor incident."

Tidd said no one was hurt although he did say several men had been near the rafter when it moved.

The 750 million pound redevelopment of the site in northwest London has been dogged with problems, with the English Football Association (FA) forced to transfer May's FA Cup soccer final to Cardiff's Millennium Stadium after deciding Wembley would not be ready on time.

That decision was a major embarrassment to the FA who had hoped to return the showpiece event back to Wembley, which hosted Cup finals between 1923 and 2000, after five years in the Welsh capital.

Costs of the project have soared, forcing Australia's Multiplex to issue six profit warnings last year.

The original Wembley, probably the most famous soccer stadium in the world, was demolished in 2000.

The new stadium will be straddled by an arch, instead of the previous twin towers. The GMB union said the section affected yesterday was where one end of the arch met the roof.

Wembley hosted England's only victory in the World Cup, a 4-2 defeat of West Germany in 1966.

English and German players from that final were due to tour the new stadium today to see its development. Tidd said he hoped workers would be back on site by then.