A piece of Alberton House in Manchester (UK), a building located next to the River Irwell, collapsed on Friday as passers-by said the ground “it shook,” while others reported that the noise resembled “an approaching train”according to the BBC.
Fortunately, no one was inside the Alberton House building near Bridge Street, which is in the process of being demolished, when the surrounding scaffolding collapsed at 2.50pm local time, Greater Manchester Fire Service (GMFRS) said.
A person who works at nearby Cardinal House said she and her colleagues have felt tremors in recent weeks during demolition work, “but this was something else entirely.”
PHOTO capture Manchester Evening News
“I felt shaking like a huge earthquake. Everyone in the building, which is eight stories high, felt it”Tayy Ara said.
“I saw half the building collapse”
She wasn't the only one who was scared. Someone else reported hearing one “loud noise” when part of the building and scaffolding collapsed.
“The clouds of dust seemed to be approaching, so I took my colleague and moved aside, but the noise was extremely loud and the ground was shaking. We turned to look and the building was collapsing. It didn't seem like it was planned as there was a lot of scaffolding still standing and people in the building next door were rushing to the windows to see what had happened. I saw half of the building collapse, then an extremely dense cloud of dust appeared,” a SAPS Chloe Gallagher, who was outside at the time.
Steve Wheeler, another resident of a nearby building, said:
“We heard a loud bang. We looked at each other wondering what it was”.
Someone else said the noise sounded like “an approaching train”:
“I didn't expect something like this to happen, now I understand why they closed the bridge”
Another witness who watched the construction work stated that it was “quite worried” by the scaffolding left to the side.
A few days ago, a building that was under renovation partially collapsed in the center of Madrid, on Las Hileras Street, a stone's throw from the Royal Theater. The area was immediately cordoned off by the authorities, while rescue teams continue their search among the rubble, reports Le Figaro.
This summer, a dilapidated residential building collapsed in Tbilisi, the capital of Georgia, killing two people and seriously injuring a woman. The building was to be demolished, but some tenants refused to leave.
