Window cleaner clings on for life as crane smashes into glass in high winds

A window cleaner was filmed dangling from a thin piece of wire attached to a crane that swung wildly out of control in powerful winds.

Two professional cleaners were working at a height of around 50ft high in Edmonton, Canada, when the crane’s platform suddenly flew away from a glass building.

Video shows the crane smashing into the side of the Stantec Tower office block several times in the gales last Friday, smashing a number of windows in the process.

At one point, one worker is left dangling precariously from the crane by their harness.

Office employees watched on from the streets below anxiously as firefighters rushed to help the men.

Eyewitness, Basma Farage said it was lucky they secured the crane as the man seen hanging was left to cling on for around 20 minutes.

She said: ‘If it kept going, he could have been swung into the building and may not have survived.’

Edmonton Fire Rescue Services said both workers made it down to the ground safely without injury.

The fire crews used an aerial ladder truck to reach the men directly. Both men were uninjured in the incident.

A warning was in place at the time for powerful 60mph winds in the Edmonton, a city with around one million residents in Alberta province.