The final demolition of Tilbury Power Station took place this morning.

At precisely 9am the Thames-side power plant was brought to the ground as people across the river watched on.

A loud bang from the explosion and falling debris could be heard throughout the town and parts of Kent after the 14th demolition at the site.

RWE Generation, who managed to explosions, said members of the public should still expect to see some works being done at the former station to remove material.

However, there will be no more demolitions.

Spokesman Kelly Nye said: "The controlled demolition brought down boiler house 7 and 8. The structure was predominantly constructed of steel and is approximately 100 metres long, 30 metres wide and 60 metres high.

"Demolition of the site began in January 2016 and most of its main structures have already been demolished.

"At the peak of the works, the contractor Brown and Mason had more than 100 workers on site dedicating over 570,000 hours to the project.

"As much material as possible has been recycled from the site, including over 4,800 tonnes of non-ferrous metal and 71,500 tonnes of ferrous metal; in addition to the generation of 100,000 tonnes of concrete arisings.

"The demolition of the Tilbury site is expected to be completed in late 2019. This will include the final remediation of the area with over 97% of the materials recycled or reused."

To protect everyone on site and in the local area, an exclusion zone was put in place before, during and immediately after the explosion.

The exclusion zone is well within the power station boundary fence, and there will be no public access to the area or impact on the local road network.