Katie Heenan was on the footpath approaching the rear of the former chief post office, on her way to work at the Otago Daily Times, when something caught her her attention, "out of the corner of my eye".
"I looked up and there were all these big slices of glass falling."
She estimated the glass landed about half a metre in front of another young woman who was on the footpath in front of her.
"Glass came right past me. It just smashed everywhere. If she was even a few seconds quicker, it would have killed her. It was kind of big slices, blades of glass, huge big blades."
Ms Heenan said it was quite windy at the time and she was uncertain about exactly where the glass came from.
"It didn't look like it came from a window. We didn't see it break or anything. We just saw big slices coming down when we looked up and it kind of looked like it had slipped off the side of the building."
The incident is the third of its kind reported by the Otago Daily Times in the past three years. In 2006, a window fell on to a vehicle and in September this year, one fell on to the street.
On that occasion, police investigated the possibility that someone had pushed the window out.
The building has been unoccupied for 10 years and has been targeted by vandals and squatters.
The building is owned by South Canterbury Finance, which did not return a call from the ODT yesterday.
After the September incident, chief executive Lachie McLeod said the company would be checking the building was secure.
A Dunedin City Council spokesman suggested those involved in yesterday's incident file a building complaint with the council.
The council can issue a dangerous-building notice and require owners to carry out work to make buildings safe.
