About 20 people have been injured in the west Netherlands town of Alphen aan den Rijn after two cranes working on a bridge restoration project toppled on to houses and shops nearby, The Guardian reported.
About 20 people have been injured in the west Netherlands town of Alphen aan den Rijn after two cranes working on a bridge restoration project toppled on to houses and shops nearby, The Guardian reported.
"Two cranes and the stretch of roadway they were carrying fell on five houses in all," said a spokesman for the fire service. Heavy machinery was moved to the scene in case people were trapped under rubble and needed to be rescued.
The cranes, working from barges, were renovating the Queen Juliana bridge, a canal bridge dating from the 1950s, when the first machine went down on Monday. Unbalanced by the extra load, the second crane then fell.
Amateur video aired by Dutch broadcaster NOS showed the two towering orange cranes on a pontoon on the Oude Rijn river carrying a large section of the bridge when they began to shift and toppled over on to a row of houses, slamming through the buildings and sending a cloud of dust into the air. The section of bridge they had been carrying also appeared to land on the buildings.
NOS said the cranes fell on a secondhand clothing store and another shop selling art and drawing supplies, but it was unclear how many people were inside at the time. "You see the cloud of dust rise - that is a terrible image and you think: 'Who is under there?' You can't believe what you see," said witness, Dick van Smirren, who filmed the incident.
The local municipality urged people to stay away from the scene to allow rescuers to carry out their work. Rescuers with sniffer dogs were on their way to the scene to check for survivors.
The Dutch Safety Board, which investigates serious accidents, said it was sending a team to the scene.