‘Everyone needs to leave now’: Students shooed out of library because of false fire alarm

The last thing you want when deadlines are looming is a 20 minute evacuation from the library, but that’s exactly what happened at midday.

The blaring alarm blew everyone’s ear off in the Sydney Jones as hundreds of library-goers were ushered out into the cold.

Sydney Jones fans were ordered to stand outside for nearly half an hour while staff carried out a “structured evacuation” – but no one knew this was happening until after they’d frozen outside.

Studious Dom, who was in the library at the time, said: “It happens every week doesn’t it, so I tried to ignore it. But it just kept going.

“Then an old guy came in screaming ‘Everyone needs to leave NOW’.

“So we got up and left.”

After realising it wasn’t actually a drill, students swarmed in their hundreds, out into the blustery wind and hail of Liverpool – both on top form today.

Dom added: “It felt like being in primary school again.

“We were all stood outside the library like lemons, waiting for some sort of sign.

“I had a deadline at two, so apart from the burning winds it really wasn’t ideal.”

Come and join the shivering student party on South Campus

After 20 minutes of not knowing what was going on, it was announced it was all in fact a “structured evacuation”.

A member of library staff said: “I don’t want the students to take the exercise lightly.

“If it was a drill, we would have announced it on the tannoy.

“We are legally obliged to carry out these tests.”

The SJ later tweeted from their usually hilarious account explaining it wasn’t planned and something had triggered the alarm.

If the Sydney Jones is the best library on campus, couldn’t they have picked a warmer day to cause this havoc?