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Search forLandslide damages cars and property
Monday, August 11, 2008, 19:55
The four-metre high wall in front of a steep bank collapsed following heavy rain.
It landed on top of a Volkswagen van parked next to a bungalow close to the bridge between East and West Looe just after 11am yesterday.
Stones and mud smashed a window of the home in Quay Road, West Looe, and knocked off slates and guttering from the roof. A second car, a Peugeot 206, was also damaged.
Nobody was in the house or the small parking area at the time and it is thought the property is unoccupied.
Police cordoned off the property and traffic on the nearby roads was unaffected.
A structural engineer from Caradon District Council assessed the damage and a full structural survey will be carried out.
The matter will be resolved by the insurance companies involved.
Looe resident and amateur photographer Neil Richardson, who took these pictures from across the river, said: "An awful lot of rubble has come down and it has made quite a mess, but luckily nobody was there at the time."
He said the home had just been bought by a businessman who had taken over a shop in the town.
A workman renovating the shop had left his van there because parking in the town is scarce.
Mr Richardson said: "The shop is right opposite so I don't know whether they saw or heard anything, or what the workman thought of his car being crushed."
A spokesman for the district council said it appeared the rest of the wall was safe, but the parking area would remain cordoned off.
He added: "It is impossible to say what happened until a full structural report. The property is currently unoccupied."
The spokesman said landslips were uncommon in the centre of the town.
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THE EARTH MOVED: One car was almost buried and another damaged following the landslide next to a bungalow in West Looe yesterday morning
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