It took just a matter of seconds to topple Christchurch’s former police station.The quake-damaged 13-storey building, once a landmark on the Christchurch skyline, was demolished in a controlled implosion today.
The implosion was streamed live, with more than 20,000 people watching the action online.
The building, which had been stripped back to what was effectively a bare shell before the implosion, appeared to keel over on its side, rather than crumble. Despite warnings to stay away, hundreds of people watched the implosion from the barriers marking the exclusion zone.
The police station, most recently owned by Ngai Tahu, was designed by the Ministry of Works in the late 1960s and built in the early ’70s. New Zealand’s first building implosion took place in August 2012, when Christchurch’s Radio Network House was demolished.