Flats To Be Blown Up For Glasgow 2014 Opener

Tower blocks which have shaped the Glasgow skyline for five decades are to be demolished live during the opening ceremony of the Commonwealth Games.

Five of the six remaining Red Road blocks of flats will be blown up in just 15 seconds - an event described by organisers as the biggest demolition of its kind ever seen in Europe. 

The blocks' final few moments will be beamed live into the ceremony at Celtic Park on a giant 100-metre screen, as well as to an estimated TV audience of more than one billion people around the world. 

Eileen Gallagher, independent director on the Glasgow 2014 board and chair of the ceremonies, culture and Queen's baton relay committee, said: ``By sharing the final moments of the Red Road flats with the world as part of the opening ceremony of the Commonwealth Games, Glasgow is proving it is a city that is proud of its history but doesn't stand still. A city that is constantly regenerating, renewing and re-inventing itself. 

``Glasgow's story is always one of its people; their tenacity, their genuine warmth, their ambitions. Marking the end of Red Road is very much a celebration of all of those things.''