Three still missing after crane collapse

Rescuers in New York City are trying to find three people still missing after a crane smashed into a townhouse.

Crews are removing pieces of the broken crane that killed four construction workers and damaged several buildings.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg said that two other workers and a woman who was visiting the townhouse remain missing. The mayor says rescuers will be able to intensify a search for survivors once the large pieces of debris are removed.

The 19-storey crane toppled over on Saturday splitting into pieces as it fell pulverising a four-story townhouse and demolishing parts of three other buildings. One man was pulled from the townhouse three and a half hours after the building was crushed.

The collapse devastated the affluent block on Manhattan’s East Side: cars were overturned and crushed. A huge dust cloud rose over the neighbourhood. Rubble was piled several stories high.

“It’s a horrible situation, very gory. There’s blood in the street,” said Lieutenant Governor David Paterson, who succeeds the disgraced Eliot Spitzer tomorrow.

An intensive rescue operation was under way to find those trapped in the rubble on 51st Street near 2nd Avenue.