One worker is dead and three people are missing in the collapse of a building being disassembled at the Didcot A power station in South Oxfordshire, UK.  Thames Valley Fire Control Service confirms a fatality in a "very severe incident".

Workers were performing demolition work at the plant, which was decommissioned and closed in 2013, when a large section of the building came down in a cloud of dust and debris.  Although witnesses reported a loud "bang" at 4:00 pm local time, a senior spokesman for Npower said that this was because of a partial collapse, and not an explosion.  The section of the building that came down was ten storeys high and approximately 300 meters long.

Oxfordshire’s deputy chief fire officer, Nathan Travis, said, "The search will be a considerable undertaking due to the instability of the site.  We expect the search will continue through the night and possibly into the coming days."

Didcot A was opened as a coal-fired power station in 1970, and was later converted to a gas plant before being decommissioned.  Workers in the stricken building had been preparing two boilers for demolition in the coming weeks.  The plan calls for three cooling towers to be demolished later this year, following the others which were brought down in a controlled demolition in 2015.  Demolition work was scheduled to be completed by the end of this year, but there will likely be investigations into Tuesday's accident that could push it back.

Didcot B is next door to the demolition work, and will continue to operate.