Police closed down Leadenhall Street and Bishopsgate following the incident on Sunday in the heart of the Square Mile.

Erith is carrying out demolition work at the 1 Leadenhall Street site which will eventually be home to a 36-storey  tower being developed by Brookfield.

Demolition work has been ongoing since January to bring down the existing seven-storey Leadenhall Court building.

GKR Scaffolding is the specialist scaffolding contractor on the job.

A GKR spokesperson said: “We can categorically confirm that the incident was not the result of a scaffold collapse.

“During demolition activities on-site, the protection scaffolding was struck.The force of impact significantly damaged the scaffolding.

“However, the integrity of the scaffold was not compromised to the extent that no scaffold materials fell from height, and the scaffold also effectively protected debris from the demolition from entering the public domain whilst containing the force of impact.

“The principal purpose of scaffolding on demolition projects is protection. The scaffolding at One Leadenhall did exactly this.

“Impacted scaffolding was removed and made safe again by Sunday night.”

An eye-witness video shows the aftermath of the incident