The ceiling of the basement floor collapsed as a result of a pipe bursting twice at the KL court complex.

NONE The first incident occurred at about 1am yesterday morning and resulted in damage to the mini-post office estimated at between RM30,000 to RM50,000, said postmaster Rosnita Muda.

"I was alerted by security over the leakages and immediately trIed to retrieve some of the postal letters, registered letters, documents and bills which were already wet.

"The computer at the post office was also damaged," she said, adding when she arrived to retrieve the postal documents, the water was about 15cm deep.

The post office has put up a notice that it would be operational only on Monday.

An outlet selling law books next to the post office estimated their losses at RM15,000 as valuable books were damaged.

The ceiling again collapsed at about 7.30am this morning resulting in water gushing out from the same place after it had been repaired hours earlier.

An eyewitness to today's incident who declined to be identified, said she arrived at about 6am and saw the repairs were complete.

"At 7.45am, we heard a loud thud followed by the ceiling crashing down again at the same place.

"At that time, there were many people at the cafeteria and there was pandemonium when the ceiling fell.

"There was also a power disruption and the floor was wet. The cleaners had to work extra time to clean the place and by 9am, everything was back to normal," she said.

'Pipes could not take pressure'

Chief Justice Zaki Azmi, who was present at the court complex along with Chief Judge Malaya Arifin Zakaria for a meeting today, declined to comment on the matter despite having been briefed over it.

He asked senior Sessions judge and court director Azizah Mahamud to speak to reporters.

Azizah said according to maintenance, the pipes were not able to take the pressure.

"The pipes had been replaced and we will be monitoring the situation closely for the next 24 hours."

Azizah said Public Works Department officials would come in tomorrow to assess the situation.

She did not want to comment as to the estimated costs of damages.

PWD director-general Dr Judin Abdul Karim told Bernama that the pipe burst as its endcap had broken because the material used was not according to specifications.

This is the latest in a series of defects to the RM500 million complex - touted as the second biggest and most advanced of its kind in the world.

On April 30, 2007 just three days before its official opening, ceiling panels collapsed together with downlights. A week later, 3m-long cracks appeared outside Magistrate's Court Four.

In May 2007, there were air-conditioning failures, blackouts and overflow from a sewerage manhole, followed by the flooding of the cafeteria resulting from burst pipes which had endcaps not placed according to specifications.