Part of a building collapsed shortly after around 20 people had been evacuated from a takeaway and neighbouring buildings.

Firefighters were called to the Sahad takeaway on Blackburn Road in Accrington town centre at around 5.30pm yesterday after shoppers noticed the first floor had started to bow.

A resident living above the shop, those living either side and people in the takeaway were evacuated by crews.

A corden was then put up around the building and police closed off part of Blackburn Road between Portland Street and Lang Street.

But just before 6.30pm part of the first floor wall collapsed into the road.

First on the scene was Tim Murrell, Hyndburn Fire Station manager, who said it was fortunate that there were no casualties.

He said: "We had cordoned off the area. It was a good job no one was about as the falling outside wall would have killed someone.

A specialist urban search and rescue team from Leyland came to sure up the building but a scaffolder made it safer instead. We don't know what caused the incident," he added.

See this week's Accrington Observer for more on this story.