THE Hexham branch of Barclays bank was forced to close on Friday morning after the ceiling collapsed.

Staff and customers were understood to be in the branch on Priestpopple at the time, but no one was hurt during the incident, which occurred at around 10am.

Customers have been advised by Barclays to visit its Front Street branch in Prudhoe or the Westgate branch in Haltwhistle while the Hexham branch is closed.

Staff based at Hexham have been temporarily relocated to other nearby branches.

A spokeswoman for Barclays confirmed that a structural engineer had been called out to assess the damage to the building and the cause of the incident.

“We are currently waiting on the results from the report back from the engineer and are therefore unfortunately unable to advise our customers on when the branch is able to be reopened as of this time,” she said.

“We apologise for any inconvenience which may have been caused.”

The spokeswoman also confirmed that repair work on the building would begin this week.