People injured after crane collapses on houses

One person is missing after a crane fell on to houses in east London leaving four people injured.

London Fire Brigade (LFB) said a 20-metre crane collapsed onto a block of flats under development and into two terraced houses on Compton Close, Bow, on Wednesday afternoon.

A video posted on Twitter showed a terraced house with part of the roof caved in.

【ギャラリー】Crane collapses in east London21

London Ambulance Service (LAS) said crews have treated four people at the scene, while a spokesman for the LFB said rescue teams are still searching for one person believed to be an adult.

A spokeswoman for LAS said: "We treated two of these patients for head injuries and took them to hospital and we assessed the other two patients at the scene.

"We are working closely with other members of the emergency services at the scene with more updates to follow."

LFB assistant commissioner Graham Ellis said: "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."

The Metropolitan Police said officers were called at around 2.39pm on Wednesday to Gale Street to a report of a crane that collapsed into a residential property and a building site.

Neil Marney, chief executive of Marney Construction, said it was not one of his company's cranes that had collapsed nor was it a crane on one of his sites.

But he said he could see the crane being erected on Tuesday from the site he was working on, telling the PA news agency: "My project manager on the site called me immediately and said the crane you were looking at yesterday being erected has just collapsed.

"So all I could see yesterday was the mast and the cab was on, and then I believe they started to add sections of the boom."