Updated: WITNESSES have said they are relieved no one was hurt when part of a building collapsed in the early hours of this morning.

Council officials are investigating what made the bricks from the facade of the Phoenix Chinese restaurant in Clarence Street collapse.

Patricia Sharp, who lives above her shop SVL The Sign Shop on Gillygate, next to the restaurant was woken up by the sound of the bricks falling at about 2am.

She said: “I heard a rumble and at first I thought that around this area it was probably students causing a disturbance. I checked our building and then I looked out the window. I don’t know why but something told me I must look out the window. And then I saw all the rubble.”

Patricia said she then went outside and started to clear the bricks away from the road, while nervously looking over her shoulder back at the building, before her partner called the police.

“I wasn’t scared. The adrenaline comes in,” she said.

The bricks fell all at once and it happened very quickly, she said, like a landslide.

“It would be interesting to know what happened, but they are very old buildings,” she said.

Barbara Stepowanyj, owner of Barbara’s Coffee Shop, next to the restaurant on Clarence Street, was relieved it wasn’t much worse.

“When I was driving in this morning, I heard on the radio that Gillygate was closed and when I got here it wasn’t as bad as I thought. It sounded like the whole building had caved in.

“It’s bad enough but it sends you into a state of panic. I hoped nobody had been hurt and it seems as though luckily no one was.”

The Phoenix closes at 11.30pm from Monday to Thursday, but Friday to Sunday it is open until 2am.

Barbara was also scared for her business, she said. “Thankfully they have allowed me to trade and in this day and age that’s important. I have regulars and would feel like I was letting them down if I wasn’t here.”

She wondered if her building may have been affected by the collapse.

“I saw everything in my life just go. I thought “what am I going to do?” I know I’ve got insurance but that’s not the point,” she said.

She said the buildings in the area are very old, but that’s part of York’s character. “York is a historic city and it’s very olde worldy and I hope it will never change.”

Nearby roads were closed but have now re-opened and the building remains cordoned off.

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