One person has died and four people have been injured after a 20-metre crane collapsed onto a house in Bow, east London.

London Fire Brigade (LFB) said the structure fell onto a block of flats under development and into two terraced houses on Compton Close on Wednesday afternoon.

London Ambulance Service (LAS) said one person had sadly died and that crews have treated four people at the scene.

The brigade’s assistant commissioner Graham Ellis, said in a statement: “This is a multi-agency response and is likely to be a protracted incident. I would ask people to avoid the area.”

Video posted to social media shows the mangled remains of the crane and the damaged roof of a nearby house.

The Metropolitan Police said officers were called at 2.39pm to Gale Street to a report of a crane that collapsed into a residential property and a building site.

The crane that collapsed was being used by Swan Housing Association and NU living.

A spokesperson for the organisation said: “Swan Housing Association/NU living is aware of an incident that occurred at our Watts Grove development site in Tower Hamlets, east London, this afternoon.

“A full incident response has been implemented and our staff are on site supporting the emergency services in their response.”

Neil Marney, chief executive of Marney Construction, said he could see the crane being erected on Tuesday from the site he was working on, telling the PA news agency: “My project manager on the site called me immediately and said the crane you were looking at yesterday being erected has just collapsed.

“So all I could see yesterday was the mast and the cab was on, and then I believe they started to add sections of the boom.”