A power outage at UN headquarters disrupted the General Assembly session here on Monday, forcing the evacuation of the main building and foreign ministers of the world's five most powerful countries to change their luncheon venue, UN officials said.
The power failure, caused by an electrical malfunction in a switch generating unit in the 39-floor secretariat building, led UN security to order all staff except essential personnel and those supporting operations of the General Assembly to evacuate the main glass tower.
UN chief Kofi Annan and the foreign ministers of the UN Security Council's five veto-wielding permanent members - Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States - had to switch the venue of their scheduled luncheon from the 38th floor to the delegate's lounge on the fourth floor, UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said.
But operations of the General Assembly were not affected as the session was taking place in an adjacent building.
Annan was continuing his bilateral meetings with foreign dignitaries in that building, UN spokesmen said.
Comments
Comments are closed.