Setback as bridge still ‘shut’

Saturday 9th January 2010, 10:02AM GMT.

Shrewsbury’s Welsh Bridge remained closed in one direction today to allow scaffolding to be put up at a town centre building damaged in the town explosion.

The bridge was due to be fully opened after it partially reopened on Thursday.

Shropshire Council spokesman Simon Alton said: “We were hoping to open Welsh Bridge today but this is not going to happen now as scaffolding is being put up on the Morris building to allow repairs to take place.”

Two victims of the blast, which destroyed a building on the corner of Bridge Street and Smithfield Road on Sunday morning, remain seriously ill at Birmingham’s Selly Oak Hospital.

Friends Sam Devine-Turner and Sarah Pearse, both 19, were today described as “critical but stable”. Two others, who are also at Selly Oak, are said to be “comfortable”.

Kiley McDonnell, who starred in Peter Pan at Theatre Severn, is being treated at the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital for spinal injuries.

Meanwhile, BT has confirmed phone and broadband services have been restored after phone cables were damaged in the blast.

View more: Royal Shrewsbury news, Royal Shrewsbury Hospital news, Shropshire Council news, Theatre Severn news.