Death toll in N.Y crane collapse rises to 7

NEW YORK — The last of seven bodies was pulled from the rubble Monday at the site of a crane collapse that obliterated a town house and severely damaged other buildings.

Six construction workers and a woman in town for St. Patrick's Day were killed Saturday when the crane broke away from an apartment tower under construction and toppled like a tree onto buildings as far as a block away. The last three bodies were found Monday.

A preliminary city investigation found that the crane toppled after a steel collar used to tie it to the side of the building fell as workers attempted to install it.

When the equipment fell it damaged a lower steel collar that was a major anchor securing the tower crane. Investigators say that with the elimination of the lower support the counterweights at the top of the crane's tower caused it to fall.

The crane, which rose 19 stories, came crashing down on a Manhattan neighborhood a few blocks from the United Nations on the city's East Side.