A construction crane lies in the middle of First Avenue and East 91st street after collapsing from a constuction site in New York, USA, 30 May 2008. EPA/PETER FOLEY

A construction crane lies in the middle of First Avenue and East 91st street after collapsing from a constuction site in New York, USA, 30 May 2008. EPA/PETER FOLEY

Police and Emergency workers are seen at the site of a collapsed construction crane lying in the middle of First Avenue and East 91st street after collapsing from a constuction site in New York USA, 30 May 2008. EPA/PETER FOLEY

A construction worker who was working on the building after a construction crane collapsing on First Avenue and 91st steet speaks on his cellphone in New York USA, 30 May 2008. EPA/PETER FOLEY

A construction crane has collapsed in Manhattan, smashing into a 23-storey apartment building before crashing onto the street below and leaving at least one person dead.

It was the city’s second deadly crane accident in two and-a-half months. Mayor Michael Bloomberg said the latest collapse was “unacceptable,” and the city would investigate.

“The sound was like a thunder clap. Then, an earthquake,” said Peter Barba, who lives on the seventh floor of the building across the street from the construction site that was hit by the crane.

One body was brought out of the rubble at East 91st Street and First Avenue, placed on a gurney and covered in a white sheet. A construction worker knelt over the stretcher, gently stroking the sheet.

It was not immediately clear whether there were additional fatalities.

Crews pulled others out of the wreckage, the Fire Department said. Their conditions were not immediately known.

Firefighters and rescue workers continued to search through the tangled crane.

Video from the scene showed the upper-floor balconies of the apartment building were severely damaged and a hole extended several stories down the side of the building.

Barba said it appeared the entire cab came off the crane; its main arm hit the penthouse of his building, then “took out the northeast corner,” he said. Chaos enveloped the largely residential neighbourhood of town houses and apartment high-rises as dozens of emergency vehicles raced to the scene during the morning rush hour.

In the March 15 accident about two miles (three kilometers) to the south, contractors building a 46-storey condominium near the United Nations were trying to lengthen the crane when a steel support broke, killing seven people.

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