RESIDENTS have described their shock as hundreds of tonnes of stone from a castle wall crashed through the wall of a house.

Emergency services rushed to the scene yesterday and found a large amount of rubble which had tumbled from Lewes Castle into a neighbouring garden crushing fences and garden furniture.

Residents were shocked as police, fire and ambulance crews flooded into the town and blocked off all roads leading to the castle, which was built almost 1,000 years ago.

Search dogs and a drone were requested by East Sussex Fire and Rescue Service as they hunted in the wreckage for anyone who might have been trapped.

One passer-by said: “It was like a scene from a film, there were so many emergency crews in the town, they were everywhere you looked.

“I saw some people had climbed onto a rooftop nearby to try and see the damage.

“I’ve only seen pictures, but the damage looks enormous.”

Green councillor Johnny Denis spoke to fire crews at the scene and was told an estimated 600 tonnes of stone had fallen.

He said: “First of all, you hear a wall has collapsed and you think it is nothing too seriously.

“But then I found out it was a castle wall and hundreds of tonnes had fallen.”

He said he new someone who used one of the buildings which the stone had toppled onto as an office.

Cllr Denis said: “He is a film maker and went to Brighton for the day. But when he came back a wall had fallen on the Old Coach House where he works.”

Cllr Denis, who is also a parliamentary candidate for Lewes, said he had come down to the scene to make sure people were safe.

He was joined by fellow Green Councillor Roy Clay, who said it was “shocking” and called for the safety of other historic buildings in the town to be checked.

The Green councillor said: “To my mind it opens up questions about other walls in Lewes, especially with the amount of rain we have had.

“It might be a good idea if they were assessed.

“I’m just thankful it looks like nobody has been hurt.”

East Sussex Fire and Rescue Service released a statement on the incident shortly after 6pm.

It said that “there are no reports of injuries or casualties” but “search dogs are being used along with the latest technology” are being used to search the area.

It was added that the service “expected to be at the scene of the wall collapse for most of the evening”.

As The Argus visited the scene two Belgian tourists attempted to visit the castle but were turned away by police officers blocking a street leading up to the broken building.

One told The Argus: “We picked Lewes Castle as our place to visit today, but we were told it had collapsed.

“That is how a castle becomes a ruin. We were here on an unusual day. The day the castle fell apart.”

Fire crews were called at 12.20pm and were still at the scene as The Argus went to print.