A warehouse manager in west London has said he is “lucky” not to have gone to lunch earlier on Friday after his car was crushed by bricks blown off a tower block.

Gary Cobb works opposite Skeffington Court, a block of flats in Hayes which was hit by strong winds brought by Storm Eunice on Friday. A wall at the top of the building crumbled at around midday.

“I was sitting in my office and heard a big crash then a car alarm going off,” the 44-year-old from Feltham told the PA news agency.

“I went out there and my car’s covered in bricks and completely crushed… a complete and utter write-off.

“It’s just lucky I wasn’t going out to lunch like I normally do, that’s the only blessing of it all really… 10 or 15 minutes later I might have been in the car, and I would never in a million years have survived that.”

Mr Cobb said a brick wall along the front of the top of the block of flats, which he estimates at 18 floors tall, had collapsed.

He has not approached the wreckage of his car yet as he is fearful more bricks will fall, and police have cordoned off the area surrounding the tower block.

“I haven’t been able to get close enough to have a proper look at it, it’s too dangerous at the moment,” he said.

“I was a bit shocked to begin with, but no-one got hurt that’s the main thing – it’s just a car and it is replaceable.”

Mr Cobb said he is waiting to hear from his insurance company about paying for the damage to the car.