A person has died after a crane collapsed on to two terraced houses in east London, trapping people inside, the fire service has said.
London fire brigade said crews were searching houses as part of a complex rescue operation after the 20-metre-high crane fell in Bow at 2.39pm on Wednesday.
London ambulance service said four people had been treated at the scene in Gale Street, two of whom had been taken to hospital with head injuries, while a fifth person had been found dead. A number of crews and a team of specialist paramedics who work in hazardous environments were responding to the incident.
A witness, who lives in a nearby block of flats on Watts Grove, said she saw the crane collapse while working from home. Bridget Teirney, in her 30s, said: “I was sitting at my computer facing out as it happened. It made a huge loud noise and a big plume of dust came up.”
She said she saw the crane fall through the top storey of a building site before it collapsed on to the homes, trapping two men including the crane’s driver.
According to Teirney, emergency services arrived within five minutes and gave the driver a rope to climb down from the crane’s cabin, while the other man was pinned under the boom.
“It was absolutely crazy. I rushed straight out on to the street,” said Teirney, who was evacuated along with other residents of the neighbouring flats.
The London fire brigade assistant commissioner Graham Ellis said: “A 20-metre crane has collapsed on to a block of flats under development and into two terraced houses on Compton Close. Our urban search and rescue crews are undertaking a complex rescue operation and using specialist equipment to search the properties.
“This is a multi-agency response and is likely to be a protracted incident. I would ask people to avoid the area.”
A London Ambulance Service spokesperson said: “We were called at 2.42pm today to reports of an incident involving a crane collapsing near Watts Grove, Bow.
“We dispatched a number of specialist resources, including an advanced paramedic, ambulance crews and our hazardous area response team, with the first of our medics arriving within three minutes.
“We treated four people at the scene. We treated two of these patients for head injuries and took them to hospital and we assessed the other two patients at the scene. Sadly, despite the efforts of emergency services, a fifth person was found and died at the scene.”