Homes evacuated after NI building collapses

Twenty-five homes had to be evacuated after a building partially collapsed in Northern Ireland.

Search and rescue teams were called out to Ambler’s Mill in Carrickfergus, Co Antrim, amid reports of young children playing in the area at the time of the incident.

The old building in the Taylor’s Avenue area of the town is currently being re-developed and at around 10pm last night a section of one of buildings at the site collapsed. Nine units of the fire services were called to the scene.

It was feared at first children may have been trapped in the rubble but the emergency services later reported no-one was injured.

Fire officer Kevin Sinnott said: “This is an old mill. It is a five-storey building. A wall had collapsed initially of about 60 metres in area. So it was covering a large area which we had to check thoroughly.”

While structural engineers carried out a close inspection of the site, 25 homes nearby were evacuated as a precaution. A number of families were forced to spend the night in a local community centre.