Clumsy visitor shatters vases

It was every museum-goer’s nightmare: a stumble, a crash and thousands of dollars worth of historic fragments lying on the floor.

The incident happened last week at the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge, England, which for decades has displayed a group of Chinese vases dating from the late 17th or early 18th century on a window sill.

A hapless visitor tripped on his shoelace, tumbled down a flight of stairs and crashed into the vases, smashing them into smithereens.

The man, who has not been publicly identified, left the museum shaken but undamaged -- in sharp contrast to the vases.

Museum staff have vowed to glue the pieces back together.