Live TV broadcast captures historic Copenhagen Stock Exchange collapse

A section of the outer walls of Copenhagen's fire-damaged Old Stock Exchange building collapsed during a live broadcast on Danish television. The moment of collapse was captured on camera.

Jens Ehlers, a journalist for the second Danish public television program, was beginning his live report before the burnt-out historic Stock Exchange. Suddenly, a loud noise was heard, and the camera captured a wall of the building falling behind the journalist.

Ehlers described how shocking it was that the collapse had suddenly happened. At first, he thought it was just materials being unloaded, but he quickly realized it was the wall collapsing. Other journalists and bystanders also recorded this dramatic moment, watching the firefighting efforts. The footage quickly spread online.

The emergency services noted that after the collapse of one of the outer walls of the historic exchange, the risk of additional collapses cannot be dismissed. Exceedingly high temperatures and structural damage have compromised the walls.

Earlier attempts to stabilize the structure involved positioning containers filled with concrete blocks against the wall using cranes. Unfortunately, these measures did not prevent the collapse.

The Old Stock Exchange building, which was destroyed by a fire on Tuesday and is known in the style of Dutch Romanticism as the Copenhagen Notre Dame, lost its iconic tower. The tower featured a spire composed of the intertwined tails of four dragons—a notable part of the city's skyline.

Defense Minister Troels Lund Poulsen called The Old Stock Exchange "an iconic building that means a lot to all of us ... Our own Notre Dame moment."