[7 Pics] S.Africa: My Photos: Another Carlton Centre Bomb Scare??

It appears there was another bomb scare at the Carlton Centre yesterday. Because I work in the city centre, and the Carlton Centre (the tallest building in Johannesburg) is across from us, we often see when something strange is happening. In the last year there have been a few bomb scares of some sort at the Carlton Centre - BUT - I have never seen any of these reported on the news. I say these are bomb scares because that is what the blacks at work say it is.

Yesterday I went to the Carlton Centre to buy some lunch. As I was about to walk in one of the entrances, a black security guard walked up and closed the door. I asked him if there was a problem - but he just ignored me and closed the glass door in my face. He would let people out, but he would not let anyone in.

So I walked around to another entrance and saw the same thing happening. People were standing around in consternation. It all happened very quietly.

I asked one coloured woman if she knew what was going on. She claimed that she'd heard that a branch of First National Bank inside the Carlton Centre was on fire. (I'm not even sure if there is an FNB branch inside). I looked around but could not see the slightest hint of fire. Later at work the blacks were talking about it being another bomb scare.

What was strange was that there were no fire engines and no Police that I saw. The Carlton Centre just shut all their entrances at a very busy time during the lunch hour. So whether it really was a bomb scare or something else... I have no idea. I went and grabbed my camera and walked around and took these photos.

A fire engine (in the photo below), drove right past the Carlton Centre without stopping. It had its siren on and went somewhere else.



Here you can see a crowd building up outside one of the entrances which had been shut. People stood around not knowing what to do. It was done all quietly.






People standing around - some curious - at the one entrance.



Some Police came wandering by. They also did not seem to know or even be interested in what was happening.



Here is another entrance where they actually pulled down the doors and shut it completely.



I took this photo of another entrance from across the road. People were all bunched up standing around at the entrance where nobody was being let in through the glass doors.



I left, and later heard blacks at work talking about a bomb scare and they were looking out of the windows. But I did not follow up. By then it had already been about 30 minutes and I had not heard any emergency vehicles. So I have no idea what caused the management to shut the Carlton Centre down at the busiest time of day. It is a mystery to me. Jan