US: Window cleaner killed in 40-storey plunge

A window cleaner was killed and his brother seriously injured when their scaffolding fell 40 storeys from a skyscraper in the US today.

The injured man was taken to hospital in a serious condition after the incident in New York, fire officials said.

The brothers were getting on to the scaffolding from the roof of the 45-storey building in Manhattan’s east side when the platform gave way, Fire Department spokesman Seth Andrews said.

Parts of the scaffold and the body of the dead worker landed in a plaza area outside the building.

Mr Andrews said the window cleaners were brothers, but their names were not immediately available. A doorman said the window cleaners had worked at the building for about three years.

They were employed by City Wide Window Cleaning, officials said. A number listed for the company was out of order and a woman who answered the telephone at a second number listed declined to comment, saying she was only authorised to answer service calls.

A call to Solow Building Co, the management company, was not immediately returned.