Landslide on busy Swansea street 'could have killed someone'

A LANDSLIP on a busy Swansea street could have killed someone had it not occurred in the middle of the night, it has been claimed.

Several families had to evacuate their homes on Beaumont Crescent in St Thomas, in the early hours of Saturday following the collapse of a retaining wall.

Tons of rubble and soil spilled out over the pavement and road, flattening a car parked at the kerbside.

The emergency services asked up to four families to leave their homes while the damaged was assessed. They were all allowed back home several hours later but the road remained closed.

Business Cards From Only £10.95 Delivered www.myprint-247.co.uk

myprint-247

View details

Print voucher

Our heavyweight cards have FREE UV silk coating, FREE next day delivery & VAT included. Choose from 1000's of pre-designed templates or upload your own artwork. Orders dispatched within 24hrs.

Terms: Visit our site for more products: Business Cards, Compliment Slips, Letterheads, Leaflets, Postcards, Posters & much more. All items are free next day delivery. www.myprint-247.co.uk

Contact: 01858 468192

Valid until: Friday, May 31 2013

One homeowner, Paul Davies, affected by the landslip said: "It happened at around quarter past four in the morning. We heard a noise and the wife jumped up. I thought it was just a chair or something blowing over. I ran to the window and could see it all (rubble and earth) down on the road.

"I knocked the neighbours up, got them out and phoned the emergency services straight away. They were here in a couple of minutes.

"They told us to stay out of the houses for a few hours. I think it as half past nine when we got back in.

"We went to my daughter's who lives in the next street. The others went to relatives. We are all local people and had somewhere to go."

Safe

Assessing the damage on Saturday morning he said: "I'm just glad that it's all walls and cars and no people involved."

Neighbour Brian Howell added: "It happened at the most opportune time. If it was going to happen, best that it happened when there was nobody about and nobody was injured. It doesn't matter about the physical side of it. Had it been during the day, someone could have been killed."

Mr Howell said engineers from the council had been out to survey the houses and had said that they were safe.

"They looked at them and there were no fresh cracks and they are quite happy that they are safe," he said.

Mr Howell speculated the washout summer may have played its part in causing the landslide.

St Thomas councillor Joe Hale said: "We are just lucky that it happened at 4.30am. It crushed a car and happened on a main route to school."

A Swansea Council spokesman said: "Officers inspected the properties on Saturday morning and carried out some work to fence off the site from the carriageway. We are due to return to the area on Monday to carry out further inspection work."