A HOUSE will have to be demolished after a dramatic wall collapse meant emergency services had to evacuate the area. 

Firefighters were called to the scene today at 1.16pm when a side wall of a property at the south end of Over Street, in Brighton, collapsed.

The three storey residential property will now have to be demolished as Brighton fire station commander

Richard Chamberlain warned “it will come down if we do not do anything about it”. 

An exclusion zone has been set up around the collapsing building and fourteen people from the surrounding area are being put into temporary accommodation by Brighton and Hove City Council. 

Traffic in the surrounding area was brought to a standstill as officers from Sussex Police cordoned off the scene. 

Firefighters used a cherry picker to survey the damage as experts from the council's Building Control team assessed the damage.

Mr Chamberlain said: “The collapse will be investigated but it will be down to some kind of building work.

“The immediate area has been evacuated and made safe and we are now working with the city building inspector and demolition experts to make the building safe so we can allow the public back.

“In the meantime there will be an exclusion area of three houses from the effected property.

“There was no one living there at the time and it is a likelihood we will have to pull the building down. We are looking immediately at the chimney and the word from the experts is it is not a matter of will it collapse it is when.”

He added: "They are going to take down in a controlled way because it will come down if we do not do anything about it,” and predicted demolition will be underway tomorrow.

There are no reports of any injuries and it is believed the house was empty at the time of the collapse.