Man narrowly avoids being crushed by falling roof in Stoke Newington

CCTV footage shows a man escaping a collapsing building. Pic: Alexandra Şöhret Marie Hamit

A man narrowly avoided being crushed by bricks that came tumbling down from a collapsing building only seconds after he walked past it on Stoke Newington High Street during high winds over the weekend.

CCTV footage shows a big pile of bricks fell down from a roof onto the pavement as soon as the man went past Stokey Vintage Cafe.

The man, who has not been identified, was seen running away as fast as he could in another clip when he sensed that something was falling behind him.

The two videos attracted hundreds of comments on Facebook.

“Buy yourself a lottery ticket this week mate,” said Michelle Upton. “Oh my, he has a guardian angel,” commented Linda Barnes.

Demet Keleş, who works at the Stokey Vintage Cafe commented under the Facebook post: “We are in the process of taking the necessary actions with the relevant authorities /people. The cafe will remain closed until further notice and we would like to inform you that although all of our employees were psychologically affected, no one has physically suffered any harm”.

Firefighters from the London Fire Brigade rushed to the scene of the incident at 10:20 am on March 10. No one was injured, however, it took nearly two hours to clean up the debris from the street.

The cafe, which opened last month, remains sealed off and will be closed until the building gets the all clear from safety inspectors. Proposed demolition of the building was withdrawn back in 2010.

Yellow weather warnings have been issued across the UK. The Met Office recorded winds of up to 65mph which caused damage to buildings and travel disruption over the weekend and warned commuters to take care when travelling.

The wild weather is expected to continue further into the week.

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