A young Irishwoman has said she had a very lucky escape after a bag of flour she believes was thrown from the roof of a carpark smashed into her windscreen.
Kim Barry, from Glanmire in Co Cork, told Cork Beo that she was "only really getting the full shock of what happened" this morning after the incident on Wednesday evening.
She was on her way into town to meet three good friends for a bite to eat when she decided to park in the Q-Park multi-story facility on the Grand Parade in Cork.
"There was nowhere on the street to park, so I decided to go in there," said the 27-year-old office administrator.
"I was just turning in, and out of nowhere, there was a huge bang and a big shock, I didn't know if I had hit something or a gun had gone off, it was so sudden."
She found a heavy 2kg bag of flour had smashed into the windscreen of her Fiat 500, sending a shockwave through the front of the car that dislodged her phone, the interior lights and rear-view mirror.
She believes the incident could have been far worse, saying: "I have a glass roof on the car, if the bag had hit that instead of the windscreen, I think I could have been pretty badly hurt. If I had lost control, I could have hit somebody.
"It was so sudden, I didn't know what to do. I thought somebody might come out of the carpark, but they didn't. I called the guards and they came over, they were great, some people passing by helped.
"I called my mam and she came in and collected me, I was sort of in shock. I didn't really register what had happened. I think I'm only really starting to get it this morning."
Kim uses the car for work and she says she will have to wait to hear from her insurers to see what can be done about repairing it.
She says she is just glad that it was only her car that got damaged.
"Later on, I started to think, 'what if I had lost control, hit another car, even hit a pedestrian going across the entrance there?'"
Kim is planning to see a doctor today as she is worried that some glass splinters or some debris may have gone into her eyes.
Kim says she has been told, via social media, that she is not the only person to have been hit with objects apparently thrown from the roof of that car-park.
There have been past incidents, including eggs and water balloons being thrown down from the roof.
"I really thought that somebody would come out from the carpark to check on me. I don't know if they have any security guards in there at all.
"The guards said they would be looking at CCTV, I just wanted to let people know what happened, I hope it doesn't happen to other people and it could have been a lot worse for me," she said.
Cork Beo talked to the Dublin office of Q-Park, which operates the facility on the Grand Parade.
A staff member said they will fully investigate what happened and will hand over any relevant CCTV footage or other information that they have to the gardai.
The Q-Park employee said they do have a 'physical presence' at all of the carparks but could not say if they have security guards on duty at all times while the facility on the Grand Parade is open.
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