Staff were evacuated from the Jumbo Floating Restaurant in Aberdeen yesterday after a barge connected to the rear of the restaurant suddenly began to sink.
At around 4pm, the barge, which is used for storing seafood, suddenly began letting in water and sank one metre, Ming Pao reports. Members of staff who were onboard immediately evacuated the boat and called the police.
Marine police and firefighters rushed to the scene and pumped water out of the barge. The restaurant’s dinner service was reportedly unaffected, and business operated as usual.
Police are investigating the cause of the leak. A surveyor told The Standard that one of the tanks used to prevent water from entering the barge could have been damaged by a foreign object, such as another boat.
Opened in October 1976, Jumbo is now a popular tourist spot renowned for its imperial palace-inspired façade… and, you know, the fact that it floats.
It can seat up to 2,300 diners, has attracted VIPs such as Queen Elizabeth II, John Wayne, David Bowie, Tom Cruise, Gwyneth Paltrow, and was featured prominently in Stephen Chow’s criminally underrated 1996 film “God of Cookery”.
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