A BFI London Film Festival screening of Wicker at the BFI Southbank was evacuated this afternoon when the fire alarm was set off by smoke from an electronic device.
”An electronic device belonging to a member of the audience overheated, causing smoke, which activated the alarms in NFT1,” said a BFI statement. ”The operations team responded, and the building was evacuated. Soon after, the building was cleared to re-enter and screenings resumed within around 15 minutes.”
Multiple X accounts reported the evacuation, with one user posting a video of people gathered outside the BFI Southbank and a fire alarm audible in the background.
A separate user, reelinsight9, tweeted at 3.06pm that the entirety of the BFI Southbank had been “evacuated due to a fire.”
“Smoke was filling up from the back of NFT1 and we were rushed out of the emergency exits at the front,” wrote the user.
Shortly afterwards, the same user posted “Panic over. We are being readmitted into the screening.”
Wicker depicts a fisherwoman who is teased by her small-minded neighbours, so asks a basket weaver to create her a husband made of wicker. Olivia Colman and Alexander Skarsgard lead the cast.
BFI London Film Festival opened on Wednesday, October 7 with Elsinore starring Andrew Scott. It will close on Sunday with the UK premiere of Jesse Eisenberg’s The Debut.
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