It took just five seconds last night to demolish a 23-storey tower block in the east end of Glasgow in the latest step towards building a state-of the-art Commonwealth Games athletes village.

It took just five seconds last night to demolish a 23-storey tower block in the east end of Glasgow in the latest step towards building a state-of the-art Commonwealth Games athletes village.

Approximately 85kg of explosives, and some 2000 individual charges, brought the 42-year-old former Glasgow Housing Association block in Allan Street, Dalmarnock, to the ground.

Louise Martin, chair of Glasgow's Commonwealth Games Bid Council, and Commonwealth silver medal winning hurdler Chris Baillie were present as the block which was once home to 262 households came down.

Glasgow City Council has already demolished two other blocks on the site in preparation for the construction of the athletes' village required should Glasgow be successful in winning the 2014 Games. East End Community Homes, the local housing organisation which manages homes in the area on behalf of GHA, has worked with the remaining tenants to provide them with suitable alternative local accommodation.

The properties in the block were emptied by August 2006 and explosives experts have been on site since then, busy preparing the building for yesterday's demolition.

For health and safety reasons, two properties adjacent to the tower block were evacuated during the demolition along with one commercial property.