One dead and three missing after power station collapse

ONE person has died and three people are still missing after part of Didcot A power station collapsed.

Great Barr demolition company Coleman and Company has been working on the site, which closed in 2013 and was in the process of being demolished.

In a statement, the company said: “We can confirm that shortly after 4pm this afternoon part of the Boiler House at the former Didcot A Power Station site in Oxfordshire collapsed.

“It is with great sadness that we understand that there has been one fatality, five people have been taken to hospital and 3 people are currently missing and unaccounted for. Our thoughts are with the families of all those involved in this tragedy.

“We are working with the emergency services who are currently on site to locate those missing and understand the cause of this collapse.”

The boiler house – a 10-storey, 300-metre building – was scheduled for demolition in the next few weeks.

A Health and Safety Executive investigation has been launched.

Coleman and Company is a £30m-turnover company which employs around 180 people. In its 2015 accounts it described the Didcot project, which it has been working on since 2012, as “the major contract” for the business.