Mother and baby escape being crushed by cladding falling from north London tower block

A mother and her baby had a lucky escape when they narrowly avoided being crushed when half a tonne of rubble fell from the top of a London tower block.

Hackney Council has now called for a safety review after brickwork and cladding fell more than 100ft into Gayhurst Road, just yards away from a school playground.

The masonry had come loose as high winds battered the tower block just before midday on Thursday and the street was sealed off by London Fire Brigade.

The mother was left “shaken” in the immediate aftermath of the collapse, according to the Evening Standard, and workers from the nearby lido stepped in to direct traffic.

A section of Gayhurst Community School’s playground and the nearby communal gardens of the Morland Estate were also cordoned off as a precaution.

“You could hear the crash from the park. There was a big dust cloud. If anything hit you from that height you’d be dead,” Laura Phillipson, a teaching assistant, told the Evening Standard.

Hackney Council said there had been no structural damage to the tower block and assured residents that all 181 medium-to-high rise tower blocks in the borough had recently undergone safety inspections in the wake of the Grenfell disaster earlier this year.

One witness wrote on Twitter: “Lucky no injuries as Morland brickwork collapses into street. Could easily have caused a fatality. Parent with baby walking past at time.”

An urgent inquiry has now been launched by Hackney Council.

“The council’s building control surveyor has undertaken a structural assessment which has confirmed that there is no structural damage.

“We are investigating the cause of the issue and are continuing to check other decorative brick work on the estate.”