Police investigate reasons for collapse of Glasgow restaurant building

Residents were led to safety after the wall of an Italian restaurant collapsed and fell 20ft onto the street below. The wall of La Riviera restaurant, on Dumbarton Road in the Patrick area of the city, fell onto Benalder Street at around 11:50am on Saturday as witnesses reported a loud bang coinciding with the incident.

A major incident unit was deployed to the incident by the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service, as well as urban search and rescue support pumps, three fire engines, a heavy rescue vehicle and gas engineers.

Though the cause of the collapse is unknown, the owner of a nearby pub, the Dolphin, Stephen McBride told BBC Scotland: "The wall's been unsafe. There has been fencing around it for a wee while," he added that it had been in the process of being repaired.

There had been three or four customers in the pub at the time of the explosion, he said. They were evacuated from the area along with residents in a neighbouring block of flats.

Though no one was hurt in the explosion itself, though the Daily Record reported that a motorist had been treated for shock. Road diversions were in place while the Fire Service secured the scene, which was discovered by police during a routine patrol. A search was then carried out of the building.

A member of the Fire and Rescue Service, Brian Winter, said: "Our priority was to ensure the safety of the public so we carried out an evacuation and then conducted a thorough search.

"All persons were accounted. The wall was right above the restaurant, surrounding its roof garden, and a part of that wall fell around 20 feet onto the pavement below. We have now cleared that debris from the area and made the scene safe."