This is the shocking moment a slab of concrete flies out of a building site and into a busy road – narrowly missing a construction worker by a matter of inches.
The incident took place during the planned demolition of the Robin Hood Gardens in Tower Hamlets – the same London borough where a woman died after being hit by a falling pallet of bricks last week.
Construction workers can be seen trying to bring down the old estate on March 22 at 11.30am using a heavy duty hydraulic arm, which tears down the outer walls of the building.
The incident took place during the planned demolition of the Robin Hood Gardens in Tower Hamlets on March 22
As one of the walls is brought crashing to the ground, a huge slab of debris shoots out from the site and over the fencing, smashing into a railing by a busy road where cars were driving by.
Grant Abrehart, who filmed the shocking incident, said there were no signs warning people of the demolition and that no netting had been put in place to prevent any of the bricks shooting out the work site.
The 33-year-old electrician, who is working in the area, told MailOnline: ‘Before I started filming I could see the whole building was shaking as if it was all going to come down. You could tell something wasn’t right.
The old building was brought down by a hydraulic arm but a slab of concrete then spits out of the work site
‘Then when part of the outer wall collapsed, the concrete slab shot out over the fencing. They had not even closed off the road to traffic and the area gets quite busy. There’s a school nearby and anything could have happened.
‘The workmen were quick to pick up the slab and tried to carry on as normal. People around us knew it was serious. A woman behind me said it was completely shocking what happened.
‘One of the workmen saw me on my phone and asked me if I caught it on camera. He didn’t seem very happy about it but he didn’t say too much.’
The damage on the railing where the concrete slab hit into. Behind is a busy main road, which was not closed at the time
Mr Abrehart added: ‘It’s a busy area and something quite serious could easily of happened. If the guy wasn’t watching, he could easily have been hit. It was close to him and ended up hitting the fence behind.
‘I emailed Tower Hamlets building control but haven’t had any response. It’s shocking.’
Tower Hamlets, which owns the land, told MailOnline that Swan Housing were responsible as the new developers for the site and that the council were responsible for the roads surrounding the estate.
A spokesman for Swan Housing told MailOnline: ‘We are shocked by the footage shared with us today and were not aware that this incident had taken place.
‘We are now investigating this as a top priority.
‘We have communicated the seriousness of this issue with the Chief Executive of the main contractor and he has promised to undertake an immediate and thorough investigation. We will provide a further update tomorrow.
‘In the meanwhile, we would like to stress that we have a rigorous health and safety regime in place to protect workers and the public and expect all of our contractors to maintain the highest standards of health and safety.
‘We would always act immediately if a member of the public reports a concern to us on 0300 303 2500.’