People living near a high rise building were told to stay in their homes after a crane on top of the property snapped as high winds and heavy rain struck Croydon.
A safety cordon was put in place and specialist engineers were called in to secure the structure at the IYLO building in Wellesley Road.
Six fire engines, four fire rescue units and 51 firefighters and officers from Croydon, Norbury, Beckenham, Battersea, Wimbledon, Heston and East Ham fire stations were at the scene to support the crane engineers if they were needed.
London Fire Brigade was called at 4.45pm on Saturday and the incident was handed over to the engineers to secure and recover the damaged crane at 8.17pm that day.
According to Croydon Guardian young reporter Teuta Hoxha, from Coloma Convent Girls’ School, the residents were reassured by police officers that they would be evacuated if the situation became dangerous.
The road was closed both ways between Station Road and Newgate and this road closure remained in place until around 5pm last night.
There are no reports of any injuries.
The damaged crane was one of a number of weather related incidents firefighters went to on Saturday afternoon due to the storm.
Between 4.30pm and 6.15pm, 999 control officers took around 140 emergency calls – mainly to fallen trees or scaffolding, signs, hoardings and other objects which had been left in a precarious position.
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