A massive crane collapsed this afternoon – at approximately 2:30PM EST – on top of four buildings in Manhattan, killing four people, and injuring 22 others. At least three victims are reported to be in critical condition.

One man was trapped for 3.5 hours before firefighters rescued him. The dead are all believed to be construction workers.

FDNY and NYPD rescue teams are searching the rubble to find possible trapped victims. The accident occurred at 303 East 51st Street near Second Avenue in the East Side of Manhattan.

Mayor Bloomberg spoke at a press conference on Saturday night and said that the 19-story crane on the side of an under-construction skyscraper split in two, damaging three neighboring buildings and completely destroying a fourth. That building, a brownstone, had a bar on the first floor that was not open at the time of the accident. Mayor Bloomberg said the accident was “one of the worst the city has had.”

The crane was running up the side of a skyscraper and apparently collapsed backwards.

Fire Commissioner Nicholas Scoppetta said the rescue was “a painstaking hand operation, as we try to remove the rubble so we don’t cause further collapse or injure anyone who may still be in that building.”

About 19 of the 44 stories had been erected, and the crane was scheduled to be extended Saturday so workers could start work on a fresh story when a piece of steel fell and sheared off one of the ties holding it to the building.

Stephen Kaplan, an owner of the Reliance Construction Group, which manages construction at the site told CBS 2: “It was an absolute freak accident. All the piece of steel had to do was fall slightly left or right, and nothing would have happened.”

(Source: CBS2 HD / WNBC)