Large parts of the outer walls of Denmark’s landmark 400-year-old stock exchange building collapsed on Thursday afternoon, two days after a fire ripped through the historic structure.There was a loud bang as the brickwork came down and a cloud of ash enveloped the building.Half of the 17th-century Borsen building was destroyed and its 54m (180’) spire tumbled to the ground in the fire that broke out early on Tuesday, in scenes that shocked Denmark.“The thing we feared has happened,” Copenhagen fire department chief Jakob Vedsted Andersen told reporters.The outer wall in the half of the building that burned on Tuesday collapsed entirely.Parts of the top of the wall around the grand entrance to the Borsen also crumbled to the ground.“Around 40-50% of the facade in the half of the building that caught fire has collapsed,” Copenhagen fire department incident manager Tim Ole Simonsen said.There were no injuries, the fire department said.“There is a continued risk of collapse of the rest of the face of Borsen,” Simonsen said.Live video from the scene showed a wall quickly collapsing in on itself, as smoke continued to rise up from the badly burnt building.Containers had already been placed around the building in an attempt to support the structure, but officials said they had been unable to anchor them to the structure.“We had really hoped that we could save the facades of this old building, but unfortunately we haven’t managed to get the anchoring in place,” Andersen said.Tuesday’s blaze were reminiscent of the fire that engulfed the Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris in 2019.Simonsen said the walls had been exposed to huge physical stress over the past few days, as their supports burned away, they were heated to incredible temperatures then cooled again, and exposed to water.Firefighters had worked through a second night to quell flames in the basement and smoke was still rising on Thursday as attention turned to the building’s restoration.The Danish Chamber of Commerce, which owns the building and uses it for its headquarters, has vowed to rebuild the exchange which originally opened as a commodities trading venue in the 17th century.Copenhagen’s mayor, Sophie Haestorp Andersen, said she would travel to Paris next month to learn about Notre-Dame’s restoration.Police have said it could take months to determine the cause of the fire.No one was hurt in the blaze.Anders Ellegaard of Denmark’s national forensic centre told TV2 that experts would help determine whether police authorities could pursue a criminal case.Police said several streets around the building would remain inaccessible until Monday.The fire began under the copper roof of the building, which was undergoing renovations ahead of its 400th anniversary.As one of the capital’s oldest and best-known landmarks, the Borsen building housed the Danish Chamber of Commerce as well as a vast art collection.Several hundred artworks were rescued from the fire.Brian Mikkelsen, the director of the Danish Chamber of Commerce said on Wednesday that the top of the building’s iconic spire – designed to look like it was made up of the intertwined tails of four dragons – had been recovered intact.“It gave a glimmer of hope. Because it will once again adorn our beautiful workplace and Copenhagen,” Mikkelsen said in a post to X.Located close to the Christiansborg parliament and seat of government, the building was commissioned by King Christian IV and built between 1619 at 1640. It was the stock exchange until the 1970s.

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