Netherlands crane collapse: New footage shows pedestrians running for their lives and one man just inches away from serious injury

Pedestrians seen running for their lives as crane collapses

New footage from the scene of the crane collapse in the Netherlands shows cycles and pedestrians missing the crash by inches, with debris and rubble littering the once quiet street.

A criminal investigation has now been launched into the dramatic collapse of two cranes that left a row of houses crushed and one man rushed to hospital.

The accident occurred on Monday when two towering cranes on a floating pontoon in the city of Alphen aan den Rijn toppled over while transferring a new section of a bridge across a river as part of restoration work.

The new video shows cyclists and pedestrians along a street nearby who begin to suddenly run away as they see the crane falling, the only thing noticeable in the video being a clear shadow slowly filling the once sunlit street.

One man sitting on the pavement realises too late and as he gets up to run he is thrown back by the force of the falling debris and rubble. Soon, the video shot, which once showed a brightly-lit street is filled with soot and dust, with only a few parked cycles visible through the smoke.

The cranes fell into a row of houses and local shops, crushing the buildings beneath them, while one man was taken to hospital with a hip injury.

Prosecutors said in a statement that three people involved in the bridge restoration had voluntarily visited police and were now being treated as possible suspects.

One man was pulled from the rubble on Monday night as rescue teams with sniffer dogs prepared to work late into the night.

Rescuers have since said they are confident that no one else is trapped underneath the collapsed buildings.