A collision involving two police cars has caused major structural damage to a parade of shops in Bradford, with one resident describing it as “like a bomb” going off.
Pictures and video show the ground and first floors of the shops in Frizinghall extensively damaged after the incident on Monday morning.
One of the few things to remain at the front of one property is a pink curtain, which was hanging in the – now gone – first floor window. Next door a large pharmacy sign hangs to the ground, and nearby a lamp-post leans at an angle.
Mohammed Naveed, his wife and three children were asleep in one of the upstairs flats above the shop units. He told the Telegraph & Argus: “I was sleeping when I heard a loud bang, like a bomb.
“We all got up and I could see the smoke from the crash rising up outside the window. We were all really scared and wondered what was happening.
“Then I heard a loud knock on the door. It was the police and they asked us to come outside. We weren’t injured but my child was very scared.”
West Yorkshire police confirmed that officers attended a road traffic collision involving two police vehicles on Keighley Road in the early hours of the morning.
The collision caused damage to a building and the road was closed while the building was made safe, police said in a statement.
“Both police vehicles were responding to an incident when the collision occurred. This is being treated as a damage only collision.”
The road, the A650, remained closed on Monday afternoon both ways because of continuing accident investigation work.
Teams from British Gas and Bradford council were also involved in efforts to make the building safe.
