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Woman crushed after pallet of bricks falls from crane in London

28-year-old remains in critical condition

Samuel Osborne
Tuesday 27 March 2018 18:17 EDT
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Police cordon off area after bricks fall on woman in Mile End

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A woman was left in critical condition after she was struck by a pallet of bricks which fell from a building site crane.

The 28-year-old was hit by falling debris while walking next to the construction site for a new housing development in east London.

Passers by on Burdett Road, Tower Hamlets, caught the aftermath of the accident on video.

“I heard a loud bang so I came rushing over to see what had happened,” a witness, Alan Harris, told the East London Advertiser.

“One woman was out cold underneath the bricks and another woman next to her was screaming hysterically for an ambulance and looking up into the heavens.”

Bystanders stopped to help the woman, who was left lying in a pile of rubble and broken wood.

The London Ambulance Service later took the woman to an east London hospital where she remains in a critical condition, the Metropolitan Police said.

A man was also treated for shock and forensic investigators remain at the scene.

“Inspectors have attended the site and are making ongoing enquiries in conjunction with the Metropolitan Police to investigate the circumstances of the incident,” a health and safety executive spokesman said.

“As the investigation is ongoing we are unable to comment further at this time.”

London's Metropolitan Police are appealing for witnesses.

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