MORE than a dozen cars were crushed when high winds ripped off the roof of a factory building and blew it on to a neighbouring car park yesterday.

Emergency services initially feared people may have been trapped under the debris, but no one was in the car park or in the unit at the time.

The alarm was raised when the partially-constructed building, comprising five units on the Littleburn Industrial Estate, Langley Moor, near Durham City, collapsed at 9.30am.

The roof was blown several yards into the parking area of the neighbouring wholesale food distributor, Bako Northern.

Bako Northern operations manager Sean Kelly said: “Staff said they heard what sounded like a bomb going off. I came out to see all the cars had been demolished.

“My immediate fear was there may have been someone inside and I immediately made sure all our staff members were accounted for, before calling the emergency services.”

Darlington Fire and Rescue Services group manager Steve Wharton said: “We got a call saying the building had collapsed and it wasn’t known if anyone was trapped inside or not.

“With weather like this we had to assume the worst and sent out five appliances and two specialised units.”

He added: “We have to praise management at Bako for having systems in place to that let us know straight away everyone was safe.

“It saved us from having to enter an area that was still dangerous.”

Firefighters using thermal imaging equipment checked the scene, while members of the North-East Ambulance Service’s hazardous area response team remained on standby.

Mr Kelly said the cars which had been written off belonged to the company’s drivers, who were out on jobs at the time.

He said: “They were all contacted and informed of what had happened. Their first concern was that no one had been hurt.”

Durham County Council building services manager Paul Burr, said: “Fortunately no one was harmed but the building had to be demolished to prevent any further incident. This was done by the council’s Building Services Team at the request of the owners.”

The owners were not available for comment.