Charlie SmithTWO BRITS were rushed to hospital after a house collapsed on an expat estate on the Costa Blanca.
One man was pulled through a downstairs window by police, after they cut the iron bars which trapped him at the crumbling apartment on the Laguna 3 Estate, Orihuela, south of Alicante.
Around 15 homes on the estate were evacuated and eight are said to be seriously affected by large cracks that have appeared in the buildings.
No one has been killed in the incident, which occured at around 8am, the local mayor Emilio Bascuñana has confirmed.
Bascuñana said: “They’re semi-detached duplex apartments. Fortunately there hasn’t been any loss of life or serious injuries.
“Two people have been taken to hospital, one suffering from a panic attack and another with superficial wounds including scratches.”
Fire service sniffer dogs were sent in to the building to confirm nobody else was trapped.
In dramatic images of the incident, furniture and ornaments can be seen teetering on the edge of a gaping hole in the side of the building, exposed by the collapse.
A Moroccan woman, known as Tisam said: “Four of the properties I know of that are affected are home to three British people and a Swedish expat.
“A lot of people were sleeping when the collapse happened. There was a huge noise around 8am.
“One of the Brits in the house that was the worst affected had to be brought out of a downstairs window by firefighters.
“The other man, a local bar worker called David, was upstairs and was taken away with shock.”
Residents told officials that work was going on at one of the houses affected, but Bascuñana refused to draw any conclusions about what caused the near-fatal disaster.
He also said: “The cause of the collapse will be investigated.
“The council will now try to rehouse all those people evacuated, in a hotel if necessary.”
