Hundreds of residents of a newly constructed Sydney apartment building are spending Christmas morning elsewhere as they await the all-clear from authorities to return home.
An emergency operation is still underway at the Opal Tower building at Olympic Park, after residents reported hearing loud cracking noises.
About 3,000 people were evacuated from the 34-storey building and surrounding areas after the alarm was raised about 2:45pm on Christmas Eve.
Police also evacuated a childcare centre and surrounding apartments.
A large crack was found on the 10th floor of the building, with emergency services and engineers monitoring the situation overnight, with initial fears of a building collapse.
Police have said the cause of the crack and structural concerns was due to an internal support wall failing.
Police confirmed the Opal Tower had moved “1 millimetre to 2 millimetres”.
About 12:30am on Christmas morning, residents of those units declared safe were allowed to return home.
But 51 units have been declared structurally unsafe.
NSW Police said residents of these units had been “escorted back to gather their belongings and have made their own arrangements for accommodation”.
One resident said he was not sure about going home.
“They said it’s safe there but we don’t feel safe. I just came from work and they blocked a road and they said you cannot go inside because of the structural issue,” he said.
Engineers and building managers remain on scene.
There were no reported injuries during the operation
