One of Christchurch's largest hotels coming down

5:20 pm on 10 November 2011

One of the largest hotels in Christchurch, the Copthorne on Durham St, will be demolished by the end of Friday.

The managing director of Leighs Construction, Anthony Leighs, says demolition began on Monday.

A demolition excavator, imported from the United States, is helping six workers to tear down the 14-storey building, which was badly damaged in the February earthquake.

Work on several neighbouring buildings has been delayed because of the risk of the Copthorne collapsing in an aftershock; it had to be stabilised first.

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