A shock waited for shoppers in a Claremont shopping centre’s parking lot last Friday: bricks had broken off the top of the building and smashed into vehicles below.

Kate Polley, of Wynberg, left her black Volvo SUV, in the Palmyra Junction parking lot. When she returned to it, she found four bricks had smashed the windshield and another two had hit the bonnet.

“When I came out of the store, I was shocked to see the damage to my vehicle,” she said.

A friend had to drive her home, and a manager at the centre later sent her an email advising how to claim for damages.

Ms Polley said the bricks could just as easily have hit someone walking by.

Another shopper, Tom Bergmann-Harris, of Harfield Village, said his black Suzuki SUV, parked next to Ms Polley’s vehicle, had suffered scratches to its bodywork from a brick that had hit the bonnet and another that had hit the left-hand door.

A white Ford SUV was also damaged, but the owner was not available for comment.

Claremont police spokesperson Lieutenant Colonel Marnus Fourie said: “This will be a civil matter to be resolved between the owners of the vehicles and the property owners.”

Palmyra Junction property manager Melissa Myburgh said they had contacted the affected shoppers to assist with insurance claims.

“We employed a professional team, including a structural engineer to investigate and attend to any remedial work required,” she said, adding that repair work had started on Saturday.

A white Ford SUV that was damaged by the bricks.

The section of the building from where the bricks fell.