A man has been taken to hospital after a stairwell on a block of flats in Montrose collapsed.
A woman and child were rescued from a second-floor flat by firefighters following the incident in Union Street.
Emergency services were called to the scene at around 11.05am on Tuesday.
Police said a 31-year-old man has been taken to hospital with non life-threatening injuries.
The woman and child could not get out of the building safely following the collapse of the first floor balcony and firefighters used a nine metre ladder to bring them to safety.
The Scottish Fire and Rescue Service said a structural engineer has been called to the scene with the area cordoned off.
A police spokesman said: “Police Scotland are currently in attendance in Union Street, Montrose, along with other emergency services, in response to a structural collapse of part of a building.
“A 31 year old man has been taken to hospital with non life-threatening injuries, and all residents within the building have been safely evacuated.
“Enquiries are ongoing as to the cause of the problem.”
Montrose SNP Councillor Bill Duff said: “I am deeply concerned at this incident, and would like to wish the injured man a speedy recovery.
“I would also like to express my gratitude to the emergency services for their sterling work in treating the gentleman and getting the woman and child safely out of the building without further injury.
“Union Street is just one of a number of streets in Montrose, and indeed in Angus that are constructed with this style of external staircase and are of a similar age.
“With that in mind, I will be speaking with council officers from building standards at the earliest opportunity and ask them to launch an investigation.
“I think it is important to find out just what went wrong in this case, and establish if this is likely to be an isolated incident due to, for example, failure of the construction material, or if there could potentially be commonality that may increase the probability of this happening in similar style properties.
“Given the number of properties of this type and age, I will be asking for a report to be brought to the council once the investigation is complete, so that we have some clarity on the background and cause of the incident.”
