An engineer was left staring at a house-shaped hole after an entire building collapsed seconds after he dislodged a few bricks from the exterior wall.

In video footage captured by a bystander, the man can be seen tackling exposed beams and brickwork at the side of a disused building in possibly the most extreme game of Jenga on record.

He can be seen picking at bricks at edge when suddenly the whole – yes whole – building collapses into a heap without warning.

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“He was up there trying to make it safe and he obviously took out the wrong brick. The whole lot came down with a loud rumble,” an eyewitness told The Manchester Evening News.

The building in Ashton-under-Lyne, Greater Manchester, was once the home of troubled poet Francis Thompson and had a blue plaque to commemorate his time there.

The boarded-up, privately owned property had been disused for some time, according to Tameside council.

Police had been called earlier that morning following reports of falling bricks and dispatched engineers to make the building safe.

The remains of the building and a section of the road surrounding it have since been cordoned off. No-one was hurt.