A fractured rock “the size of several cars” that balanced precariously above a mountain road in New Zealand was demolished on April 12 as a part of clean-up work from the November 2016 Kaikoura earthquake.

“Now, we like a good explosion as much as anyone but there really was no other way to remove this risky rock,” the Hurunui District Council wrote on its Facebook page with video they shared on April 20.

The rock had been fractured by the earthquake from five months earlier, leading to an unsafe situation on the road leading to Lake Sumner, roading team leader Kushla Tapper told Stuff.co.nz

The blast split the rock into five pieces, each about the size of a ute, which contractors then cleared away.