Leicester's New Walk Centre Demolished In Controlled Explosion

22 February 2015, 11:25 | Updated: 30 March 2016, 13:50

It took a matter of seconds to bring down the old council offices of Leicester's New Walk Centre this morning in a controlled explosion.

Hundreds gathered at the cordon around the site to watch the buildings come down at 10am this morning (Sunday 22nd Feb)

Roads were closed and people banned from parking nearby from 6pm last night as the team prepared to bring the two towers down.

Now it's a pile of rubble specialist cleaners are moving on to the site to begin the clean up process.

The team behind the demolition say they chose a method known as a "controlled initiated collapse" which uses pre-weakening and explosives to bring down the two towers into their own footprint.

That was picked because it was decided it was the safest and fastest method of demolishing the towers, with roads and businesses expected to be open as normal by Sunday afternoon.

People who have been evacuated from homes and businesses in the exclusion zone were able to watch the demolition live on a big screen at the Leicester Tigers’ Welford Road ground.