A MAN fears his home could be washed away in heavy rain after the banks of a brook collapsed.

Paul Murray said unless urgent action is taken to shore up the bank of Whitewell Brook heavy rainfall could cause more crumble and threaten his home.

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The 47-year-old, of Pinch Clough Road, Lumb said he was woken by the sound of a ‘mini earthquake’ shortly after 7am today.

His neighbours also reported hearing a loud bang before seeing the wall located just yards from Mr Murray’s house crumble in three different places.

Police and firefighters attended but said as there was no immediate danger to life there was little they could do.

But residents said if any people or animals had been on the banking at the time it collapsed they could have been killed.

Mr Murray, 47, has appealed for urgent help for the area from the authorities, which was also affected by the 2015 Boxing Day floods.

He said: “About 7am we heard the bang and the first bit of the banking went.

“Minutes later the next part went and it collapsed into two halves.

“It sounded like a mini earthquake. Obviously I knew it wasn’t.

“I came running down the stairs and one of my neighbour’s came running up and said don’t let the dogs out because the bank was collapsing.

“I was fearing the whole wall was going to go.

“If there is any heavy rainfall or another flood then it could go.

“If it did it would drag the bridge in with it and maybe even my house.

“We need help from the authorities to make it safe and get everything in order before its too late.

“Somebody could be killed or seriously injured.”

Neighbour Brian Stansfield, 85, a former haulage driver who has lived in Pinch Clough Road for 60 years, said: “I woke up this morning a I heard the crash with the bank coming down.

“It has come down in a right big lump.

“The authorities need to come and dredge it out otherwise we’ll be flooded again like we were in Christmas 2015.

“We were out of our house for six months after that and I am really concerned t’s going to flood again.”

Resident Michaela Hoare, 50, said: “My daughter came and told me what was going on.

“It brought down about three feet of masonry with it. I went around to tell Paul. While I was doing that the next bit came down.

“We though more would fall because you could see the water really crashing against it.

“It was like a landslide.”

Structural engineers from Rossendale Council visited the brook and Environment Agency engineers were due to arrive this afternoon.

A council spokesman said the bridge is the responsibility of Lancashire County Council.

A County County spokesman said: “This is a private bridge carrying a private road and it is the responsibility of the landowner to maintain.”

A fire service spokesman said: “We were called at 8.40 to Pinch Clough Road Whitewell Bottom in Rossendale.

“We were told there was a vehicle bridge close to collapse.

“After an initial assessment we requested the borough council’s building inspector and Environment Agency to attend due to a large section of the bank collapsing which was possibly affecting the stability of the bridge.”

The Environment Agency was unavailable for comment.