Today Hot Report

NEW YORK (CNN) — One person was killed Friday when a construction crane fell more than 20 stories from the top of a Manhattan building, according to Scott Stringer, the borough president of Manhattan.

Crane wreckage lies on Manhattan’s Upper East Side on Friday in a photo by iReporter Michael Schuman.

The collapse left a pile of wreckage at the foot of an apartment building at 91st Street and First Avenue, a heavily residential area on the city’s Upper East Side.

The crane also hit a building across the street as it fell, gouging out a chunk of a rooftop penthouse.

“I’m not directly on the scene, but I can confirm that we have lost a life of yet another building collapse in the borough of Manhattan, and it is an absolute tragedy,” Stringer said.

Discussing the accident during his radio show on WOR-AM, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg said, “This is just unacceptable and intolerable.”

The New York Fire Department would not comment on the status of any injuries.

But Florence Diamond, a bus driver who was approaching the corner when the accident happened, said the crane’s operator appeared to have been in the cab when the rig fell.

“I just saw all the crane come down in the middle of the street. It was like something out of a movie,” Diamond said. “I couldn’t believe the crane had fell, and I also saw the guy that was operating the crane go down with it. It was just one guy.”

In March, another construction crane collapse in Manhattan left seven people dead.