Crane collapses at NY City construction site, seven hurt

NEW YORK (Reuters) - A 170-foot tall crane collapsed on Wednesday at a construction site in the New York City borough of Queens, injuring at least seven people, three seriously, authorities said.

The mobile crane was being used at the site of a new 25-story residential building under construction when it fell over about 2:30 p.m., the New York City Police Department said.

Among the seven injured, three were in serious condition and another four suffered minor injuries, the New York Fire Department said. None of the injuries was considered life threatening.

Police and fire crews as well as officials from the city's buildings department responded to the accident. The cause of the collapse was under investigation.

The crane is owned by New York Crane, among the biggest crane operators in New York. The company's owner, James Lomma, was acquitted last year of manslaughter charges for a crane collapse that killed two workers in May, 2008 and raised fears about high-level building projects in New York.

In that case, the nearly 200-foot-tall crane that snapped in half and crashed onto a building on the Upper East Side of Manhattan. That incident came two months after another crane operated by Lomma's company in Manhattan collapsed and killed seven people.

A representative from New York Crane was not immediately available for comment.

(Reporting by Paul Thomasch; Editing by Leslie Adler and David Gregorio)