Watch moment Glasgow tower block demolition goes completely wrong

This is the moment a controlled explosion to take down six enormous tower blocks in Glasgow went wrong.

Glasgow’s Housing Association (GHA) intended to demolish the remaining Red Road flats all at once to minimise disruption to people living nearby – but two of the towers stubbornly stayed standing.

The iconic Red Road flats, once Europe’s tallest residential blocks, were built in the 1960s to tackle the city’s housing problem. They lent their name, and setting, to Andrea Arnold’s 2006 Bafta-winning film Red Road.

Campaigners last week vowed to form a human shield to block GHA workers from setting the explosives.

They claimed the use of a blast to destroy the blocks could shower nearby homes in dust, and pointed to damaged water supplies that followed a previous phase of the demolition.

Nonetheless the demolition went ahead – although the housing association will now need to finish off the job at a later date.

A GHA spokesman said the demolition “did not go completely to plan” and apologised for any inconvenience it had caused neighbours.