Hazel Blears and six other Labour MPs have a lucky escape as building collapses

One trapped as building collapses

Dean Farrar Street, blocked by rubble

One person has been injured and another remains trapped after the top two floors of a five-storey building in central London collapsed.

The emergency services were called to Dean Farrar Street in Westminster at 1604 BST on Tuesday.

The London Fire Service said one person was being treated for minor injuries and police said one other person remained trapped in the building.

The building houses the campaign office of Labour chair Hazel Blears.

A spokesman for Ms Blears said none of her staff had been hurt.

Ms Blears and six other MPs spent several hours in the offices on the fourth and fifth floor at lunchtime today, he added.

Six fire engines, 50 firefighters and two urban search and rescue vehicles are at the scene.

The top floors were undergoing renovation at the time of the collapse.

Police said rescue services were in contact with the trapped person, believed to be a builder.

There was no evidence of an explosion and structural failure is thought to be the cause, police added.


Eyewitness Anthony Gilberthorpe told BBC News 24: "It happened just so very quick one didn't know what to do.

"I heard a mighty explosion and about two floors and the roof of a building to my left hand side was literally showering down in front of me.

"So I literally threw myself, literally jumped up and threw myself, to the right hand side of the road not knowing whether I was going to be hit."

Mr Gilberthorpe saw a van driver step out of his vehicle moments before it was hit by a huge piece of debris.

"What I did see which was quite shocking was a huge boulder went right through his vehicle, literally where he had been 15 seconds previously and I think that's the most frightening thing that I actually witnessed.

There were six of Ms Blears campaign volunteers in the offices at the time of the collapse.

One of them, Sean Newman, said: "Some of us who were upstairs felt the building shake.

"Then we heard the alarm go off and left our stuff to go downstairs. It was a calm evacuation, but they would not let us go back in."

He estimated that there were around 50 businesses based in the premises.

Justin Linger was also working in the building at the time of the collapse.

"I was just sitting in the office when all of a sudden the whole building shook," he told BBC News 24.

"As one of my colleagues put it, the building disco danced."

Scotland Yard said the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) would be responsible for determining the cause of the collapse.