Commercial Road reopens after East London accident

Demolition contractors have cleared the debris from a site in East London after a building collapsed last week. Commercial Road was reopened yesterday following clearance work carried out by contractors that included Keltbray.

Whitechapel collapse

The four storey building collapsed last Tuesday afternoon, injuring 11 people. Although refurbishment work was being carried out on the block local reports have claimed the cause of the accident was more probably due to an overloading of stock in the upper floors by the clothing import firm that occupied the block.

Colin Jackson, managing director of Essex-based building surveyor Regional Building Control, told BBC London: "We don't think the collapse was due to the building work that was taking place and being supervised by us.

"Our initial assessment of the site suggests that the collapse was due to the gross overloading of the upper floors. With so many boxes being stored on those floors, the collapse could have happened at any time."

For more pictures and an eye-witness report click here