Four dead, four injured in Seattle crane collapse

Four people were killed and four others were injured when a crane collapsed Saturday afternoon in the northwestern US city of Seattle, the fire department said.

In a statement, the fire department said the crane “fell from the roof of a building” and hit six vehicles below, near the southern shore of Lake Union, which lies in the center of the city.

It said three men and one woman were killed -- two of whom were operators in the crane, while the others were in different cars.

Of the four people injured, a 27-year-old man, a 25-year-old woman and a four-month-old baby girl were taken to hospital with non-life threatening injuries, the department said.

The Seattle Times reported the crane was used as part of construction work to build a new Google campus in the city, a fast-growing tech hub famously home to e-commerce giant Amazon.

“A full and thorough investigation into the cause of the crane failure is being conducted by Washington State Department of Labor and Industries,” the fire department said.