Sentinel Property Group, the owner of the shopping centre, said an investigation was being conducted, but the centre would continue to operate as normal.

"Business is operating as normal at the centre while construction work on new tenancies continues," a spokesperson said.

"Investigations are continuing into how the alarm was triggered whilst assessments are being made about any water damage from sprinklers activated in the car park area."

Sentinel also said that there were no reported problems for staff and shoppers during the evacuation, which occurred after the automatic fire alarm was triggered at around 9am.

Operations were affected for more than an hour on Saturday as emergency personnel responded to the incident.

Stores near the Howick Street entrance remained open, but the rest of the centre was cordoned off.