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| One trapped as building collapses | |
| (about 1 hour later) | |
| One person has been injured and another remains trapped after the top two floors of a five-storey buildingin central London collapsed. | |
| The emergency services were called to Dean Farrar Street in Westminster at 1604 BST on Tuesday. | The emergency services were called to Dean Farrar Street in Westminster at 1604 BST on Tuesday. |
| The London Fire Service said one person was being treated for minor injuries and police said one other person remained trapped in the building. | |
| The building houses the campaign office of Labour chair Hazel Blears. | |
| A spokesman for Ms Blears said none of her staff had been hurt. | |
| Ms Blears and six other MPs spent several hours in the offices on the fourth and fifth floor at lunchtime today, he added. | |
| In pictures: Building collapse | |
| Six fire engines, 50 firefighters and two urban search and rescue vehicles are at the scene. | Six fire engines, 50 firefighters and two urban search and rescue vehicles are at the scene. |
| The top floors were undergoing renovation at the time of the collapse. | |
| Police said rescue services were in contact with the trapped person, believed to be a builder. | |
| There was no evidence of an explosion and structural failure is thought to be the cause, police added. | |
| Debris rained down from the building to the street below | |
| Eyewitness Anthony Gilberthorpe told BBC News 24: "It happened just so very quick one didn't know what to do. | |
| "I heard a mighty explosion and about two floors and the roof of a building to my left hand side was literally showering down in front of me. | |
| "So I literally threw myself, literally jumped up and threw myself, to the right hand side of the road not knowing whether I was going to be hit." | |
| Mr Gilberthorpe saw a van driver step out of his vehicle moments before it was hit by a huge piece of debris. | |
| "What I did see which was quite shocking was a huge boulder went right through his vehicle, literally where he had been 15 seconds previously and I think that's the most frightening thing that I actually witnessed. | |
| There were six of Ms Blears campaign volunteers in the offices at the time of the collapse. | |
| One of them, Sean Newman, said: "Some of us who were upstairs felt the building shake. | |
| "Then we heard the alarm go off and left our stuff to go downstairs. It was a calm evacuation, but they would not let us go back in." | |
| He estimated that there were around 50 businesses based in the premises. | |
| Justin Linger was also working in the building at the time of the collapse. | |
| "I was just sitting in the office when all of a sudden the whole building shook," he told BBC News 24. | "I was just sitting in the office when all of a sudden the whole building shook," he told BBC News 24. |
| "As one of my colleagues put it, the building disco danced." | "As one of my colleagues put it, the building disco danced." |
| Scotland Yard said the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) would be responsible for determining the cause of the collapse. | |
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