Huge chunks of debris fell from the roof of a sports house in southern Vietnam on Tuesday during an international badminton tournament but nobody was hurt.

The incident took place at 7:30 pm at Phan Dinh Phung Sports House, located in Ho Chi Minh City, where four male badminton players were competing in two men’s singles matches at the Yonex Sunrise Vietnam GP Open 2014.    At the end of an attack wave, Singaporean player Lu Chia Hung saw plaster dust falling down to the court.

Looking up, Lu discovered a part of the roof above his head cracking so he signaled to the referee to suspend his game.

Organizers, players, coaches, and officials who were present at the court stopped the games and immediately left the area.

Just a minute later, the roof collapsed, creating a big bang that could be heard from outside the sports house.

Nguyen Duc Thinh, a spectator witnessing the incident, said, “Things happened quickly. People just left the ground in time when the roof fell down. Dust then started rising.”

Broken bricks, stones, and pieces of the air-conditioning system were scattered around the competing court, according to Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper journalists who reported from the sports house.

Nguyen Phuong Nam, chairman of the Vietnam Badminton Federation and head of the organizing board of the tournament, admitted that officials had checked the hall before the tournament commenced but they mainly worked on the lighting and air-conditioning systems.

The Yonex Sunrise Vietnam GP Open 2014 is scheduled to take place from September 1 to 7.

The structure of Phan Dinh Phung Sports House, situated in District 3, has remained unchanged since it was built in the 1980s.

The place should have been renovated in 2010 but any restoration of the facility has simply been on paper ever since.

The tournament’s organizing board and representatives of the Badminton World Federation have agreed to move the event to Tan Binh Sports House in Tan Binh District, around five kilometers from Phan Dinh Phung.

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