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More than 100 people had to be evacuated from more than 40 flats on Monday evening after a major landslide caused a wall to collapse in Dundee.

Gardens and patios disappeared as tons of earth and rubble tumbled down from the rear of tenements in Gardner Street, crashing into flats below on Lochee Road.

Only a gaping hole measuring around 40 metres wide and around 30 feet deep was left at the back of the homes as a retaining wall disappeared at around 4pm, with earth and rubble strewn down around 50 metres of the slope and piling up against the Lochee Road blocks.

No one was injured but residents in some 24 flats at 2, 4 and 6 Gardner Street were hurriedly told by police they had to leave their properties immediately after the blocks of tenements “wobbled” following the landslide.

Meanwhile, flat-dwellers at 175 to 179 Lochee Road were also removed from around 20 homes by police after feeling the impact of the mud striking their building.

Roy O’Kane, who owns the basement flat nearest to the landslide, said he had been out at the time of the collapse but was shocked at the devastation when he returned home and saw it.

He said: “I’m just amazed it wasn’t the whole building, all that’s left is the patio and it’s squint. After that it’s just a gaping hole. We’re talking ten feet here, if it had been any further in, then the stairwell out the back would have gone and people wouldn’t have been able to get down.

“It’s really scary and I’m still in shock.”Photo gallery: Landslide in DundeeHis neighbour Andy Barrett, 48, a staff nurse with NHS Tayside, said his partner Suzanne was in their flat along with their three-week-old son Sam when the drama happened.

He said: “I was at Tesco and I looked at my phone and saw four missed calls from her. She told me: ‘The garden’s gone, the back wall has collapsed and it’s all gone’.

“Nobody was hurt so that’s the most important thing. But it’s our home, we’re going to my mum’s tonight but that will only be for a couple of days at most.I don’t know what will happen after that.

“There’s been some problems with the sewers over the past couple of weeks so I don’t know if that had anything to do with it or if it’s just the rain we’ve been having.”

Two other residents in the block, Lynsey Henry and Jason Alexander, both 25, said they were just about to leave the flat when a police officer frantically told them they had to get out immediately.

“I thought I heard a bit of a bang a wee bit earlier but I thought it was probably the TV or a neighbour or something,” student nurse Lynsey said.

Partner Jason, who works as a sports strengthening and conditioning instructor with Dundee FC, described the devastation behind their rented flat as being “like something out of an American disaster movie”.

He added: “I can’t really find the words to describe it. Basically, the whole of the back garden has gone.”

Resident Roberto Annunziata, 25, who shares a flat in the affected block at 175 Lochee Road with his mother Anna Mazzotta, 60, and his girlfriend Lorena Coman, 20, said he heard a thump and felt the building shake.

“The building moved,” said Roberto, a researcher at Dundee University’s School of Computing.“We live on the third floor and I thought it was a tree falling down on the building. I jumped up from the sofa and looked out and saw it then we went down the stairs.

“We were the first down and I told another resident about it and he phoned the police.”

Police said heavy rain over the past few days is thought to have caused the collapse, but some residents said there had been long-standing sewer problems in the ground behind their flats.

Emergency services were called to the scene shortly after 4pm and the city engineer surveyed the damage and is due to return this morning to further assess the situation.

Police immediately closed off Gardner Street at the junction of Loons Road and Rankine Street at Lochee Road, along with connecting side streets and diverted traffic away from the area.

Although emergency vehicles, including fire tenders, police and Scotland Gas Networks vehicles lined a section of Lochee Road, the main route between the city and Lochee was kept fully open.

It’s understood the gas service to the flats was not affected by the landslip.

Evacuated residents were assisted by Dundee City Council officers who were on hand to arrange any alternative accommodation and offered an emergency rest centre.

However, the affected residents were able to make their own arrangements.

A spokesman added: “The city engineer will be on the site from 9am (today) to further assess the situation.”

A spokesman for Police Scotland Tayside Division, which co-ordinated the response to the incident, said: “There has been a significant landslide at the read of the properties at 2, 4 and 6 Gardner Street and at 175 Lochee Road.

“A number of flats have been evacuated while the city engineer assesses the situation.”