Drinkers were left with a nasty taste in their mouths when a Hampstead pub’s ceiling collapsed scattering debris in their pints and injuring several punters.

Drinkers were left with a nasty taste in their mouths when a Hampstead pub’s ceiling collapsed scattering debris in their pints and injuring several punters.

Customers had to be evacuated from The Stag in Fleet Road after a six metre slab fell shortly before 8.30pm on Saturday (January 7), wreaking damage to the bar.

Alex Howe, who lives opposite the pub, said: “I was walking to my flat when I heard a huge crash.

“It looked like half the roof had fallen down in the left hand side of the bar. Everyone was pouring outside, I saw one man clutching his head – it looked as if he was hurt.”

The 31-year-old lawyer added: “It was quite a shocking sight. It took me a while to work out what was going on. I wondered if someone had been murdered or something.

“I had a look at it on Sunday and the whole ceiling was down and there was debris all over the floor.”

Ambulance crews and firefighters with specialist debris-clearing equipment arrived at the pub to seal off the area and treat four injured customers.

Tweeting from inside the pub, punter @Joeygooner17 wrote: “Just in the stag pub in hampstead... Aaaand the ceiling falls down!!! No injury...”

While @jkbeerock, commenting on pictures of the shattered roof, Tweeted: “Pictures after the ceiling caved in at the stag in hampstead last night, thought it was a jihad!”

A London Ambulance spokeswoman said four people were taken to St Mary’s Hospital in Paddington and the Royal Free Hospital in Hampstead, where they were treated for minor head injuries.

The Stag was unavailable to comment.