The structure had been on a building in Pond Street, opposite the Royal Free Hospital, and covered in plastic sheeting.
The Health & Safety Executive is investigating why it failed to withstand the wind.
London Fire Brigade was called out and police summoned to the scene but no one was injured, which eyewitnesses described as ‘a miracle’ given how busy the road is.
Local resident Gergana Kabakova, 29, told the Ham&High newspaper that she had been underneath the scaffolding with her six-week-old baby when the scaffolding collapsed. “It was a truly traumatic experience. I am still in shock, and the thought of what could have happened to us makes me shake and cry,” she said.
A member of staff at ALB Scaffolding, the firm that fitted the scaffolding, told the newspaper: “It could well have just been the wind, because it will have caught the plastic sheeting and that can give it nowhere to go.”
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