A couple out shopping say they narrowly avoided being crushed when a town centre building collapsed in Stevenage on Tuesday.

Swingate House - an empty building in Swingate that was being prepared for controlled demolition - unexpectedly collapsed into the road just before 10am.

Police, fire crews and a specialist rescue unit were sent to the scene, with specialist search dogs used to ensure nobody was trapped under the rubble.

Shopper Tola Rayment says she and her husband Rob are lucky to be alive, certain they would have been crushed by the rubble had they not turned back to pick up something they had forgotten to buy in Tesco.

Tola said: "We had driven past [Swingate House] and parked down the side of Westgate, at the back of Lloyds Bank, about half-an-hour earlier and had just returned to the car to head home.

"I heard a loud bang but, because there's construction work going on, I didn't think much of it.

"I turned the car around and saw the building was literally in the road. It was such a shock.

"I think I was the first person there, as it had just happened.

"We would have been under it, 100 per cent, if we hadn't gone back to Tesco to get one more thing - a present for a party at the weekend.

"That saved us. If we hadn't gone to Tesco, I dread to think what would have happened. It was super scary. It could have ended badly for us."

The Comet: The building collapsed into the roadThe building collapsed into the road (Image: Tola Rayment)

She continued: "Lots of fire engines and police arrived, and we were trapped next to the building for a while, but I'm so happy nobody was hurt. It was pure luck that nobody was."

A cordon was put in place by police, and firefighters worked with structural engineers from Stevenage Borough Council to make the scene safe so the remainder of the building can be safely demolished and debris cleared from the area.

Swingate House had been due to be demolished as part of the 20-year regeneration programme of Stevenage town centre, which is worth nearly £1 billion.

Stevenage MP Stephen McPartland is calling for a "clear explanation how [the collapse] could have happened" and says he will be asking the Health and Safety Executive to investigate.