A woman praying in the egalitarian prayer plaza was narrowly spared from death on Monday morning when a 220-pound stone fell out of the Western Wall and plummeted to the ground.
A woman—the only person at the “Ezrat Yisrael” mixed-gender prayer plaza at the time—seemed so absorbed by her prayers that she failed to notice the falling brick, which broke the plaza floor just a few meters in front of her. Officials from the Israel Antiquities Authority immediately sent inspectors, archaeologists, conservationists and engineers to the site, and have closed off a portion of the plaza until safety can be assured.
The breakage comes just a day after the Western Wall plaza was filled with worshippers marking Tisha B’Av—a day of fasting and mourning the destruction of the two holy Jewish temples at the site.
This is not the first time a piece of the Kotel has dislodged. In 2004, a large piece of Herodian stone fell in the main prayer plaza. Officials said they believed it fell out after metal objects placed in the cracks of the wall by birds led to erosion.