A series of controlled explosions failed to bring down part of one of the cooling towers as thousands of people watched at 3am today.

A substantial part of the North tower – about a third of it - was left standing, like a giant finger pointing skywards above the M1 motorway section.

But workmen set to it with gigantic mechanical diggers and the damaged tower was down by 5.20am.

This morning there was still a question mark hanging over when the M1 motorway, between junctions 32 and 35, would reopen. After extensive safety tests it was back in use by 6pm this evening.

See our video of the towers coming down and meet the hairdresser who did it! Click the green button

The giant disused cooling towers – know locally as the "salt and pepper pots" – stood 250ft (76m), weighed 3,000 tons each and were just a few feet away from the twin-decked Tinsley viaduct, which carries the M1 motorway above and the A631 on its lower deck.

The Highways Agency closed the viaduct from midnight and the original intention was always to keep it that way until engineers check it was not damaged by the operation.

E.ON spokesman Emily Highmore said: "The towers are completely down now and the demolition has been carried out as planned. The site is now completely safe.

"One tower came down completely as expected and then there was about one third of the other one left standing, but angled away from the viaduct, as the demolition experts designed it to."

For a full report and more amazing photos - see The Star on Monday, August 25. Order your copy today.

Meadowhall shopping centre turned some of their car parks overlooking the towers into viewing platforms and a spokesman estimated that around 12,000 people turned up to watch.

The blast at first appeared to be an amazing success and onlookers gasped at the awesome sight as the towers fell into a rising cloud of dust and smoke. It was greeted with cheers and applause, with some motorists sounding their horns.

But for a heartbeat many people feared that part of the North tower had fallen onto the motorway.

It was only when the dust cleared that it became apparent - the nitro-glycerine charges had failed to destroy part of one tower.

Two huge explosions triggered their demise - the first was to destroy the South tower and then, two seconds later, another blast was to bring down the North tower. Other charges followed milliseconds later, to help the structures to fall away from the motorway.

Hairdresser Claire Brook, aged 28, and fiancé Glynn Morgan, of Hunters Close, Thropham, near Dinnington, won a text competition to sound the horn that signalled them to be blown up, at 3am.

Money raised will be shared equally between Rotherham Hospice and Neurocare at the Royal Hallamshire Hospital.

She said: "It was an amazing sight. I couldn't believe how they came down. It's something we'll never forget."

The towers stood at the gateway to Sheffield for decades and were a familiar sight to millions of motorists on the M1.

But despite calls to save them, as a reminder of the region's industrial past, the towers are gone.

E.ON, said preserving the towers, the only remnants of the Blackburn Meadows power station, would have been very expensive, as they had been deteriorating. A new £60m biomass power station will be built on the site.

But many people were saddened to see the demise of the towers. Attercliffe MP Clive Betts condemned the destruction as "an act of historical vandalism".

Did you see the towers being blow up? Tell us what you think - comment below.

Don't forget to see The Star for an update, full report and more photographs of the spectacular blast which marked the end of the iconic towers.

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