More than 200 square metres of scaffolding collapsed from a building during high winds in Hampstead
A huge raft of scaffolding collapsed outside the Royal Free Hospital in Hampstead yesterday (8 March) and fell on to Pond Street, leaving bystanders in shock.
No one is thought to have been hurt.
Police and firefighters attended, and Pond Street was closed.
In comments to Ham&High newspaper, Gergana Kabakova, 29, said she had been underneath the scaffolding with her six-week-old baby when it collapsed.
She said: “We immediately started running with the pram towards the nearby bus which was stopped there.
“It was a truly traumatic experience. I am still in shock, and the thought of what could have happened to us makes me shake and cry.”
A member of staff at ALB Scaffolding, the firm that fitted the scaffolding, also told the newspaper: “It could well have just been the wind, because it will have caught the plastic sheeting and that can give it nowhere to go.”
The Health & Safety Executive (HSE) is now investigating why the scaffolding failed to withstand the wind.
