Mansfield man describes terrifying near-miss of woman and baby in landslide

John Brown was walking from his home on Ratcliffe Gate to the Co-op store in Southwell Road West when the side of a cliff collapsed into the road at 9am this morning (November 21).

Mr Brown says the noises he heard as he walked to the shop, which initially sounded like branches snapping, "must have been the rocks splitting", after parts of the cliff collapsed onto the pavement and road.

One of two lanes remains closed on the road while Nottinghamshire Police, Severn Trent Water and Via East Midlands clear up the damage, with dozens of large rocks falling into a pile by the road.

He also said it was lucky there was a "lull in traffic", otherwise cars could have been struck by the debris.

The Ratcliffe Gate resident said: "I was passing by on foot at the time, it happened a little after 9am. I heard what sounded like some branches snapping and then the hillside gave way.

"I'd heard a similar noise when I'd walked up the hill to the shop about 15 minutes before, but I'd seen an engineer with an orange hi-vis jacket on one of the top gardens up on the cliff side, so assumed it was them.

"I heard the branch snapping-type sound and it all collapsed. Obviously, I must have been hearing the rocks splitting, rather than branches snapping.

"I was pretty close to the incident when it occurred, however there was a woman who was pushing her baby along who was extremely close to being hit.

"I shouted out to her after it happened to see if she was okay, she seemed a bit shocked and didn't really respond but was evidently fine and was just trying to get the push chair around the rubble, which was difficult as it was covering the path and near side of road up to the centre of the road.

"I moved a couple of the larger rocks that had rolled over into centre of the road so cars could still get past but it seemed like everything was okay, and the woman was really keen to get going.

"Its extremely lucky that lady and baby didn't get hit and also lucky that there was a lull in traffic at that precise time, otherwise the debris would have hit more than a few cars."

Severn Trent Water has been contacted for an update on the collapse, and Mansfield District Council is also expected to issue a statement later today.

The council confirmed earlier today that its environment team is on-site supporting the ongoing investigation.