A restaurant on a converted paddle steamer has begun to sink into a lake in Essex. Photographs of the Miller & Carter Steakhouse at the Lakeside shopping centre showing it partially submerged emerged online on Friday. Some observers described the venue as “going down like the Titanic”, while one wrote online: “Looks like my family meal is cancelled!” Essex county fire and rescue service said everyone had been safely evacuated from the restaurant. “We were informed of the incident, but as no one was onboard (everyone was safely evacuated) there was no life risk and therefore we were not required to attend. The incident is being dealt with by the site owners,” a spokesperson said. A spokesperson for the restaurant’s owner said: “We are aware of the situation at our Lakeside restaurant. Regrettably, due to the scale of damage we were forced to close immediately. “Our priority is our guests, and our teams are working hard to contact everyone who holds a booking with us to inform them of the unforeseeable incident and issue refunds as quickly as possible.” A message on the restaurant’s Facebook page, from the Miller & Carter Lakeside management team, said that it would be “closed until further notice due to structural issues”. It added: “We will contact every guest as soon as possible, for safety reasons we are unable to access our restaurant to answer any phone calls. Management will be calling all guests with upcoming bookings. We sincerely apologise for the inconvenience caused.” The shopping centre’s director, Howard Oldstein, said the steamer began to sink on Friday morning while the team was preparing for the lunch service. He told the Daily Mirror: “As soon as we found it was sinking at the back, all staff were removed with their belongings. It’s now lying in the water until it comes to rest. “We’re allowing it to take its natural course and, once it’s done that, we will do what is required to deal with the situation at hand.” While the lake is deep, Oldstein said it was not deep enough that “its point could go straight into the air” and sink directly down into it, the paper reported. The restaurant’s website describes the two-floor venue as “floating on the edge of the lake (the restaurant is a converted paddle steamer) at Lakeside shopping centre”. Ben Stanley, the manager at the nearby Casco Lounge restaurant, told the BBC that the shopping centre quickly cordoned off an area beside the boat. “There is a security guard in the way blocking people from getting through, but they have now opened up the walkway.”