Woman, 85, killed when crane came crashing down onto homes in east London

9 July 2020, 11:37

The woman who died when a crane collapsed on homes in east London has been identified by members of her family.

June Harvey, 85, died when the crane came down onto homes in Bow yesterday afternoon. Police said efforts to recover her body were ongoing today.

The huge construction crane collapsed onto homes, sparking an evacuation of nearby properties.

"One woman inside a residential address, believed to be aged in her 80s, died at the scene," police said today.

Footage shows how a crane tore through a Bow house

Formal identification awaits and a post-mortem examination will be scheduled in due course.

Police said a builder was also injured and remains in hospital in critical condition. A number of other people suffered minor injuries, officers said.

A joint investigation is under way into the collapse and officers will be at the scene for the next few days. There have been no arrests and enquiries continue, police said.

It comes after a woman who lives next door said she and her family were "lucky to be alive" after the crane came down.

The woman who did not want to give her name, said she felt "traumatised" after the crane fell in Bow on Wednesday afternoon, killing one person.

She said her home is next door to the one which felt the full impact of the crash, and said the collapse sounded "like an earthquake".

The woman said: "I came out of the bathroom and if I had come out a second later, the attic door which is above could have fallen on me and that would have knocked me out.

"The way that everything fell - if my brother or sister had been in their rooms which is where it hit directly, I just cannot bear to think about it.

"If you could see the state of our garden.

"My dad was walking back into the house to tell everyone 'move, there is a crane coming down'.

"If anyone had been inside the two rooms there, they would have been completely crushed.

"It is just lucky that one of my siblings was at work and the other one was downstairs. They would have been completely crushed."

Residents have been evacuated to a nearby school and emergency services are working within the cordon at the scene.