Final bodies found in NY rubble

Rescuers recovered the last three bodies on Monday

Rescuers in New York have retrieved the bodies of three more people who died when a giant crane collapsed in Manhattan's East Side.

It brings to seven the number of people killed when the crane toppled and crashed, demolishing a building.

The bodies of two construction workers and a woman who had been visiting a friend were the last to be found.

At least 17 were injured in what Mayor Michael Bloomberg called one of the city's worst construction accidents.

Rescuers had been picking carefully through the debris in the hope of finding the remaining missing people alive.

The crash destroyed a four-storey townhouse and demolished parts of five other buildings.

The missing woman had come from Miami to visit a friend, said John LaGreco, the owner of the Fubar tavern on the ground floor of the townhouse.

He said she had been in her friend's second-floor apartment at the time of the accident on Saturday afternoon - the friend had been rescued, he added.

The other six people who died were construction workers.

'Freak accident'

The crane, which stood 19 storeys high, was being used in the construction of a new high-rise apartment building.

The crane crushed a townhouse and parts of five other buildings

The accident happened during an attempt to extend the crane to allow workers to start work on a new level of the building, said one of the owners of the company managing the construction site.

Stephen Kaplan, of the Reliance Construction Group, said a piece of steel had fallen and cut one of the ties holding the crane to the building, causing it to detach itself and fall.

"It was an absolute freak accident," he said. "All the piece of steel had to do was fall slightly left or right, and nothing would have happened."

He added that his company had sub-contracted the work to different companies, and was not in charge of the crane.

Reliance released a statement expressing sympathy for the families of the dead and injured.

It added that it had launched its own investigation, and was co-operating with external investigators.

The East 51st Development Company, which owns the property, also issued a statement expressing sympathy for the victims.

Mayor Bloomberg said 24 people were injured, including 11 emergency workers. Eight people remain in hospital.