Pregnant Mansfield mum relives moment she was nearly crushed in huge landslide

Lisa Riley - who is 35 weeks pregnant - said it sounded like “an animal was running down the cliff” when the incident occurred, that left her one-year-old daughter screaming in her pram.

She feared going into labour early due to the shock she felt at the time.

Nottinghamshire Police were called to the scene just after 9am on November 21 on Rock Hill, which has been partially closed between Broxtowe Drive and Carter Lane.

The incident follows a recent mudslide in Berry Hill Quarry on November 7, where 35 homes were evacuated.

Lisa, who is 29-year-old and lives nearby in Mansfield, said: "We were seconds away from it and only feet away from where it started landing.

"It sounded like an animal running down the cliff. I carried on walking and just as I was going past where the fence is now, it all started coming down.

"I was absolutely shocked and someone said I was lucky to not be under it. I’m 35 weeks pregnant and the whole thing made me feel like I could have gone into labour.

"It was unbelievable how fast it came down."

Lisa was walking her eight-year-old daughter to school at the time with her one-year-old daughter, Keera, in her pram.

She added: "It could have been a totally different outcome. It has been on my mind all day too and made me feel like I maybe shouldn’t go out."

A Mansfield eye-witness who also saw the collapse said Lisa was "lucky" to be alive after the "near miss".

John Brown, who lives in Ratcliffe Gate, 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 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.

"Its extremely lucky that the 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."

Building control managers and site managers from Nottinghamshire County Council and Mansfield District Council have been at the scene.

Martin Carnaffin, a contract manager for Nottinghamshire County Council who was at the site, added: "We believe that any further material that falls can be safely contained within our traffic management area.

"It’s too early to say definitively what has caused this. We will have to leave it as it is for now to keep the site safe and come up with a permanent solution.

"Our priority is road safety."