In a “miracle” escape, an English couple nearly escaped death when a two-ton boulder burst through the ceiling of their hotel in the Canary Islands, only yards from where they were sleeping.
Adam Molyneux-Downs, 49, who was staying at the hotel in Gran Canaria with his girlfriend claimed the building shook as the boulder came through the roof – only hours after they requested to be changed rooms due to another falling rock.
Mr. Molyneux-Downs, of Leamington Spa, Warwickshire, sprang out of bed into a cloud of dust after hearing the “almighty crash,” believing there had been an earthquake.
But later, he saw the four-foot-wide boulder, which had fallen from a steep cliff backing onto the Mogan Princess and Beach Club hotel, lying outside his room.
It was dismissed by the vacationing father of one as a “f****** boulda,” and he reassured his girlfriend, “Don’t worry about this dear; it’s nothing.”
According to Mr. Molyneux-Downs, the structure was severely twisted by the collision, making it impossible for the pair to open the entryway.
It was a “miracle nobody was murdered,” he said, adding that his first worry was if it had “got anyone.”
Due to the force of the fall, the hotel balcony’s edge had collapsed, causing the floor below to sink.
Blinds fitter Mr. Molyneux-Downs stated that when another rock had fallen earlier on their all-inclusive vacation, he had requested a different room but that the hotel had turned him down.
He said there were “looser areas” and that he could see where the “alleged safety netting” that keeps the boulders in place separates from the cliff face.
He “told everyone to pack and hurry to reception” after the incident.
The Mogan Princess and Beach Club hotel in Gran Canaria informed The Sun that some guests had been relocated and that Mr. Molyneux-Downs had been put up in neighboring housing.