Falling masonry hits bus shelter

Published on Friday 27 June 2008 11:18

A CHUNK of masonry fell from a top floor flat at a city centre building, narrowly missing pedestrians and crashing on to a bus shelter below.

The material came loose from the Bread Street flat yesterday.

Police and the council reacted by cordoning off the bus shelter and the pavement around it.

Workmen were sent into the third floor flat to chip away at what was left of the masonry. The remainder of the slab, which was covering sandstone beside a window sill, was removed and council workers picked any additional rubble off the window and onto the street below.

The owner of the Duncan McLaren locksmiths, Bob Morrison, was working when the incident happened yesterday afternoon. His shop is just yards from where the fall took place.

He said: "We were in the shop when we heard something hit the bus shelter outside.

"When we went to look we saw some masonry lying on the road, then decided to phone the police and council to come and deal with it. "There was still some bits loose but people were just walking round it and going about their business, no-one seemed to fussed about it.

"When it was sealed off someone went to chip the rest away but I think that was just precautionary. I'd say the piece was about less than half an inch thick and not that big, not big enough to do any real damage, but it made some noise when it landed on the bus shelter."

The debris was removed shortly before rush hour began last night and the bus stop reopened.

It is the second such incident inside a month to have taken place in the city centre.

At the end of last month an elderly man was narrowly missed by a chunk of masonry falling from the 102-year-old King's Theatre.

Eyewitnesses told how the heavy piece of red sandstone, about eight inches square, fell around 20 metres, smashing on to the pavement on Tarvit Street.

The incident sparked an investigation, which found the fall had been caused by weather damage to the ageing building.