Pedestrian Has Face ‘Ripped Off’ By Sofa Falling From London’s W Hotel

The luxury W Hotel in Leicester Square where the accident happened/Rex Features

A pedestrian is said to have had his face “ripped off” after being struck by a falling sofa.

The man suffered a serious head injury as he was struck by the two seater sofa which is thought to have fallen from scaffolding outside the luxury W London Hotel.

Thought to be in his 20s, the victim was walking past the five star hotel in Leicester Square on Friday morning when the accident happened.

One witness told the Sun: “The sofa came flying over the top of the hotel’s flat roof. I can’t understand how something that big and heavy came to fall over the edge.”

They added that the “smartly-dressed” pedestrian “looked like his face had been ripped off”.

The pedestrian was rushed to a nearby hospital where his condition is described as “critical but stable.”

Another witness who works at a nearby hotel said: “The sofa was on the back of his head and there was blood all around it. It was horrific.”

The couch is thought to have fallen from scaffolding constructed outside one of the W private penthouses which are situated on the top floors of the building.

The penthouses are luxurious private residences, let out by Knight Frank for £9,533-a-month.

A London Ambulance Service spokeswoman said: “We were called at 8.52am to Wardour Street after reports of a person being hit by a falling object. We treated a man at the scene for a major head injury and took him as a priority to a major trauma centre to a hospital in central London.”

The hotel told The Sun the incident was related to furniture from one of the privately-owned residences.

They said: “At this early stage it is believed he was injured by a piece of furniture which fell from scaffolding,”