Glass panel shattered by falling tile in Auckland's CBD

The 1.5m x 1.5m panel shattered this morning, leaving glass strewn across the footpath. Photo / Jason Oxenham

A glass awning panel has smashed on the corner of Queen St and Victoria St in Auckland's CBD, sending glass showering down on to the footpath next to the city's busiest intersection.

The panel, measuring about 1.5m x 1.5m, appears to have been shattered by a piece of cladding falling from the second floor of the high-rise at 205 Queen St, around 11am.

A strip of tile is missing from the window above the smashed panel, and an adjacent tile has been prised loose. The footpath had been cordoned off this morning.

A tile on the high rise at the corner of Queen and Victoria Street appears to have fallen, smashing through the glass awning and on to the footpath. Photo / Jason Oxenham

Auckland Transport spokeswoman Natalie Polley said an emergency case had been logged with AT's contractors and it would be cleaned up as soon as possible.

AT took care of on-road and footpath issues, so could not tell the building owner to look at its own building, Polley said.

The 22-storey building is one of two formerly known as the National Bank towers. Built around 1990 and subsequently refurbished, they were sold to an overseas buyer in 2017 for an undisclosed price, believed to be close to $175 million.

ANZ is the high-rise's ground-floor tenant but the bank was unaware the panel had been broken when contacted by the Herald.

Emergency services and Auckland Council were also not aware of the issue.

The 22-storey building and its neighbour sold in 2017 for close to $175 million. Photo / Jason Oxenham