Businesses at Dockyard’s Clocktower Mall were yesterday forced to shut up shop due to a gas leak.

The problem was fixed by yesterday afternoon — but several Clocktower store owners said that the incident may have cost them sales on one of their busiest days.

A staff member at one of the stores said: “Business-wise, it was really bad. I was really disappointed, but things happen.

“At least I’m making a little bit now, but Tuesdays and Fridays are our busiest days. Especially in the summertime. It’s really busy.”

An assistant at another store added: “This is usually one of the busiest days of the week with the cruise ships getting ready to head off,

“We usually get a rush of folks on Tuesday and Friday, so losing the morning hurts. I don’t know how the day is going to wind up, but I think we’re all hoping the passengers are a little patient and were willing to wait for us.”

Another business operator said: “Thankfully, it is business as usual now. I’m just hoping we didn’t miss out on too many sales this morning.”

Andrew Dias, general manager at Wedco, said the mall was shut down as a precaution after a mystery smell in the mall was reported by staff.

He said: “It was right around 9am when the facilities department noticed a smell.

“We didn’t see anything, but out of an abundance of caution we evacuated the building and contacted the fire service.

“We also checked the gas lines outside along with the tanks and we didn’t see anything.

“It was right after we turned everything back on that we noticed the smell had increased again.”

But it was later found there was a problem with a fitting behind an appliance in the mall’s Café Amici.

Mr Dias said: “We got in touch with Bermuda Gas and they sorted all that out.”

The mall and its stores were back in business by 1pm.

Mr Dias added it was unfortunate that the mall had to be closed during a peak period — but that safety was the top priority.

He said: “I’m sure there was some disappointment. That’s why we made efforts to open it as soon as we could instead of saying we would just open tomorrow.”

A spokeswoman for the Bermuda Fire and Rescue Service said that firefighters were called to the mall but their assistance was not needed.