NEW YORK – An early-morning crane collapse on Manhattan’s Upper East Side killed two workers and injured another – the latest in a startling string of construction accidents.

The collapse happened just after 8 a.m. EDT at East 91st Street and First Avenue, with the crane ripping through the white brick exterior of a 23-story apartment building and landing on the street below.

The crane’s operator, identified as Donald Leo, 30, of Staten Island, was pronounced dead at the scene. Another worker, Ramadan Kurtis, 27, of the Bronx, died later, police said.

A third worker was in serious condition with a chest wound, police said. The unidentified man was being treated at New York-Presbyterian Hospital.

“What has happened is unacceptable and intolerable. Having said that, we do not know at the moment what happened or why,” New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg said, adding that it appears the builders followed regulations.

Construction workers Lamont Coggins and Trevor Griffin were still stunned shortly after the crane crash.

Coggins, 37, of Brooklyn, said he was so close to the crane operator he could see “what he was eating.”

The operator didn’t seem panicked or disturbed before the crane – which had no load – spun twice, collapsing on a third turn, Coggins said.

“It went so quick,” he said. “All you could do was pray for him as he went down.”

Griffin, 19, of the Bronx, was inside the building hit by the crane. He was clearing the 13th floor for crews to lay concrete when he heard a loud noise and saw falling debris.

“It was white metal pieces coming down,” he said. Griffin escaped by sliding down a ladder.

Both men believed the crash had something to do with machinery malfunction. The two had been working on the site for two weeks and couldn’t immediately recall any major problems.

No official word of the cause of the crash had been released by authorities at the scene.

Near the scene, construction workers lined a police barrier as they waited to be interviewed by investigators.

In the distance, the crane’s base remained on the building being constructed. Across the street, the apartment building had damage to several floors, showing the path of falling crane.

City Councilwoman Jessica Lappin said New Yorkers should be furious about another deadly crane collapse.

“They have a right to be angry,” she said in a television interview. “They have a right to be nervous when they’re walking down the street near a construction site.”

The construction was taking place at 335 E. 91st St. A police source said the Department of Buildings in April cited the contractor for operating a crane in an unsafe manner with hoisting a steel box with no permit.

In March, seven people were killed in a crane collapse on East 51st Street. An inspector in the city’s Buildings Department was later arrested on charges of falsifying business records, and Buildings Commissioner Patricia Lancaster resigned.

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PHOTO (from MCT Photo Service, 202-383-6099): CRANECOLLAPSE

GRAPHIC (from MCT Graphics, 202-383-6064): 20080530 NY crane collapse

AP-NY-05-30-08 2014EDT