Emergency services were called to a £30million Aberdeen office complex yesterday after glass fragments were spotted tumbling from the structure.
Two fire crews from Aberdeen Central were dispatched to the city’s Capitol building, on Justice Mill Lane, at around 2pm, after a shattered glass pane began falling to the ground.
Glass was seen scattered on the pavement as police shut down the street around the scene of the incident for almost an hour.
Last night, the developer behind the building’s refurbishment said a window pane on the building had been hit by a crane from a neighbouring development three weeks ago.
The outer pane of the glass was shattered, but held firm, with an exclusion zone placed around the foot of the building.
However, during high winds yesterday, the fire and rescue service were called in after pieces of glass were seen falling from the structure.
The historic former Capitol Theatre has recently been transformed into a 12-floor office block as part of a joint venture between Aberdeen-based Knight Property Group (KPG) and M and G Real Estate.
Firefighters scaled the newly-built office complex, deploying a height vehicle to secure what was described as “falling glass” from the scene.
KPG director, Howard Crawshaw, said: “The Capitol was finished in April. What happened was that, three weeks ago, when the developer next door was dismantling his crane, it clipped our building and broke a pane of glass.
“It was safety glass and fractured into a thousand bits, but held in place. There were two panes in the window, it was the outer panel (which was affected).
“There was high winds today and little bits started coming out.
“There was an exclusion zone at the bottom, it was in place for three weeks. We called the fire brigade who took the glass out, so it wasn’t a safety hazard.”
A spokesman for the fire and rescue service said: “There was a bit of broken glass falling down and we were called out to make it safe.
“The stop message came back at 2.50pm.”
Locals reported seeing shards of glass falling from the building.
Karen Yau who works in the neighbouring Wood Group building, said: “I saw construction workers stopping people at the end of the street at around 1pm.
“Some of the glass was already falling, so I don’t know if they were expecting a lot more to fall.
“It was coming down from around the sixth level and you can see a hole there now.”
