Dallas crane collapse: One dead and six injured as severe storms sends machine crashing into building

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At least one person has been killed and six injured after severe storms forced a construction crane to topple into a Texas apartment building.

In an incident emergency rescue officials said they had never experienced before, the downed crane ripped a large gash into the side of the building in Dallas. It also damaged an adjacent parking garage and some of the vehicles in it, officials said.

“There has never been a crane collapse onto an already inhabited building, as far as I know,” Jason Evans, a spokesman for Dallas Fire-Rescue, told reporters on Sunday afternoon. “We only hope that what we’ve found up to this point is where the damage and where the impact stops,” he said.

He said the person who lost their life was a woman discovered by rescue crews badly injured inside her apartment on the east side of the building. She was later pronounced dead.

The incident happened at the Elan City Lights apartment complex, is a five-storey residential apartment building located on Live Oak St.

Reports said severe thunderstorms capable of damaging winds, large hail and potential tornadoes were blowing through downtown Dallas and nearby Fort Worth on Sunday, according to the National Weather Service.

Forecasters said winds could be as strong as 70mph. At Dallas Love Field airport, WFAA-TV reported that gusts damaged a hangar door and part of the roof at a Southwest Airlines maintenance facility.

Isaiah Allen was in his apartment when he heard what he thought was a thunderclap, before realising the sound had come from the collapsed crane.

“I saw that the crane had actually fell straight through the building and had destroyed a good eight to 10 apartments and so there’s like floors and stuff falling through,” he told the Dallas Morning News.

Four of at least seven people were taken to Parkland Hospital and the other three went to Baylor University Medical Centre, Mr Evans said.

Two people were in a critical condition.