A man has died after the roof of a terraced house in the centre of West Bromwich collapsed this morning.

The man, in his 30s, was found at around 11am, almost 11 hours after the incident, lying among the rubble in the offices of an estate agent on the ground floor of the building in the High Street. The two floors above are occupied as residential addresses.

Paramedics confirmed that the victim was dead. Two other men who were inside the building when it collapsed had already been rescued earlier by fire crews, and two more had managed to make their own way out.

Two of the four who survived were taken to Sandwell General Hospital, one suffering from a head injury and the other from a foot wound, neither of them life-threatening.

The dead man was found after sniffer dogs and a specialised search team carried out a precautionary check on the ruins.

Police are now trying to discover whether the victim was on the roof of the building when it collapsed, or whether he was crushed underneath when it gave way.

A fire service spokesman described the incident as a “catastrophic failure” of the roof, adding: “The roof has collapsed inwards, which has caused the floors below to pancake downwards towards the ground floor.”

The cause of the collapse is unknown.

Detective Chief Inspector Danny Long said: “At the moment we can’t tell what time this person died or where he was in the building when the roof collapsed.

“Obviously the roof went through not just the first floor but through to the ground floor. We don’t know how far he fell. We can’t say at this stage.”

Mr Long added that police believed they knew the dead man's identity, and had contacted his family. The body has yet to be recovered from the building.

West Bromwich High Street is closed to all traffic and police say that it is likely to remain so for some time.

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