Floor collapses at stock exchange in Indonesia, injuring dozens.

A floor at Indonesia’s stock exchange has collapsed into the building’s lobby, injuring at least 50 people.

Part of the floor on the first level gave way, sending debris crashing on to the ground level, a Jakarta police spokesman said, adding that it was an accident and not an explosion. Victims were carried out on stretchers.

The director of the Indonesian stock exchange, Tito Sulistio, said those injured had been sent to hospital. They had mostly sustained injuries to their legs and arms.

Figures given by spokespeople for three hospitals showed 52 people were injured.

“The accident happened at the first floor … It’s a floor where many employees are passing by … There are some victims but they have been taken to a nearby hospital,” the Jakarta police spokesman Argo Yuwono told reporters.

Television footage showed several people lying on the ground and being carried outside the building, with crowds of panicked and screaming people being evacuated amid piles of debris.

Despite the chaos, the stock exchange spokesman Rheza Andhika said trade had continued as usual in the afternoon session.

The accident happened shortly after noon local time (0500 GMT) while the market was on its lunchtime break.

“There was a lound banging so people who were inside immediately ran outside of the building,” said the Metro TV journalist Marlia Zein, who was on the scene.

The Indonesia stock exchange is in the centre of Jakarta, and the local office of the World Bank is also housed on the 12th floor of the complex, according to its website.

In 2000, powerful plastic explosives packed in the trunk of an old car caused a blast at the exchange building, leaving 15 people dead and several injured.