Teenager Injured as Wall Collapses

A 6ft wall has collapsed on top of a 14-year-old boy while he was walking along a street.

The teenager suffered back injuries in the incident on Carrs Lane in Birmingham city centre, and became trapped in the rubble.

He was freed by emergency services, including an urban search and rescue paramedic who is trained to treat patients in hazardous areas or where access is difficult, and taken to Birmingham Children's Hospital for further treatment.

Some of the rubble landed in the road near a bus stop and had to be pushed back on the pavement by emergency services before a cordon was set up.

Police are investigating the incident and are attempting to confirm whether the wall had been on land belonging to gunmakers William Powell & Sons or a Marks and Spencer staff car park.

The wall collapse follows a similar incident on the same street in 2004 in which a woman suffered serious injuries when she fell 10ft down a hole that opened up in the pavement. The hole had been caused by a previously unknown Victorian cellar under the ground.

Stephen Nye from the Birmingham office of Irwin Mitchell commented: "This is a case which has caused serious injury to a young boy and only by chance were no other people injured. I have dealt with a number of claims involving defective premises where people have sustained injury. This incident serves as a further reminder to property owners that they have a duty to keep their premises in a state of good repair and that should they fail to do so, they will be liable if others are injured as a result of that failure."