Dundee's landmark blocks bite the dust

The Maxwelltown, Jamaica, Carnegie and Wellington towers in the Hilltown area were reduced to rubble in seconds in a series of controlled explosions.

Around 600 homes and 50 businesses were evacuated and an exclusion zone set up around the area before the explosions began at 12:30pm.

Sandra Grant, a former resident of the blocks, wrote on a dedicated website set up by Tayside Police: "Sad in a way, to see your one-time house coming down for good … was a good morning, tho."

Another former inhabitant, Mhairi Wilson, watched the demolition with her son. She wrote: "My wee boy cried cause that's our old flat gone."

Demolition company Dundee-based Safedem used more than 1,400 detonators to bring down the four 21-storey blocks, which were once home to more than 600 families.

William Sinclair, managing director, said the operation, which took five-and-a-half seconds from beginning to end, had been nine months in the planning.

"We use minimal explosives, which take out structural elements of the building and allow gravity to take over and the building to drop to ground level," he said.

"We used delayed detonation so one part drops down before the next part. It is just like when you are a child and you play with building blocks. If you take the right brick out, the whole thing comes down.

"The idea is to bring it down as close as possible to its own footprint."

Mr Sinclair said the explosion in Dundee was "just about as perfect as it gets".

However, he added: "It is what we have been doing for a long time, and after you have taken down 75 tower blocks you don't get quite so excited."

The only fall-out damage caused by the blast were two old sash windows nearby, which cracked when they were shaken in the air blast - the boom that follows an explosion.

Safedem, which was named contractor of the year in the World Demolition Awards of 2009, was also involved in the evacuation and in liasing with local communities.

Residents were advised to avoid the area because of the dust and road closures, but crowds of spectators gathered to watch the skyline change forever from vantage points such as the Law, the waterfront, the City Quay, the Tay Bridge and the Tay Bridgehead area.

The four blocks which vanished from the skyline yesterday were built in 1968, but the flats became increasingly difficult to let and were declared surplus to requirements in October 2004, by which time more than a third stood empty.

The demolition of the buildings, off Alexander Street, is a key part of Dundee City Council's plans for the regeneration of the Hilltown area.