THE CANADIAN PRESS
MONTREAL - A woman dining at a downtown Montreal restaurant was struck and killed by a piece of falling concrete Thursday evening.
The 33-year-old victim was dining with her husband at the Mikasa Sushi Bar when a slab of concrete fell off a hotel on Peel Street, near the corner of De Maisonneuve Boulevard.
The slab of decorative concrete came crashing through the atrium window of the restaurant, located in the ground floor of the Marriott Residence Inn, from about 17-storeys above.
The woman's death was pronounced at the scene.
Montreal police say the victim's husband, also 33, lost some fingers and was also treated for severe shock.
"He may have lost a few fingers but he's in hospital in a stable state," said Const. Olivier Lapointe.
Lapointe said a section of Peel Street, which is in the heart of the city, was expected to remain closed for several hours as a precaution while the fire department inspected the building.
It's not clear what caused the slab, about one metre by one-and-a-half metres, to come off the side of the building, Lapointe said.
