Man dies after being hit by runaway van

2:46pm Friday 15th December 2006

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A MAN was killed when a runaway delivery van knocked him through the side of a Gwent house.

But he was not discovered until five-and-a-half-hours after the incident, and after emergency services had left the scene and the householder had returned home.

The tragedy unfolded at 1.30pm yesterday when a van rolled into the back of a house on Rhiw Parc Mews, Abertillery.

The owner of the house, Colin Morris, 30, came home to find the van in the back of his house.

According to Mr Morris, police and ambulance services were at the scene and had cordoned off the area, while structural engineers from Blaenau Gwent council had been to assess the damage to the house.

But when the owner was let into the house at 7pm to collect some clothes for the night, he found the body of a man in the kitchen.

"I couldn't believe it," said Mr Morris, "I was in utter shock. No one had seen him."

Mr Morris believes the man was walking past the house when the van hit him.

He said he must have been thrown 15 feet through the rear of the property.

"If I had only walked into town instead of taking the car it would have been outside my house and might have stopped the van," said Mr Morris.