A chimney that came crashing down in the centre of Newton Abbot last week damaged a parked car and cost a charity shop hundreds of pounds in lost trade.

A fire crew from the town was called to Queen Street at approximately 7.15pm on Thursday after reports that masonry had fallen from the roof of the three-storey building which houses the CLIC Sargent store on the ground floor.

Although no one was hurt, a black Ford Ka was struck.

Suspecting that other material might also come down, an aerial ladder was called in from Torquay and officers sent up to remove loosened debris.

With the pavement cordoned off the incident was then handed over to police.

On Friday morning, staff at the CLIC Sargent shop arrived to find that customers were barred from entering via the front door.

Building control officer Alan Greenslade was outside trying to track down the building's owner and arrange scaffolding and repairs to the dangerous chimney.

'It's one of those cases where damage has gone unnoticed and now the chimney pot has come crashing down,' Mr Greenslade told the Advertiser.

'I really would urge property owners to be aware of problems like this and to ensure their buildings are maintained properly.

'Luckily in this case no one was hurt, but it could have been a very different story.'

The shop finally re-opened on Saturday afternoon after 12 hours of trading had been lost.

'Our manager, Angie Stuart, calculates we lost between £600 and £700 as a result,' said spokesman Alice White.

'People were also unable to donate goods and our volunteers who were due to work were inconvenienced.

'However, we're grateful nobody was hurt, for us it was just unfortunate.'