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Collapsed crane at Sydney's Barangaroo spinniing precariously above city streets

A crane crumpled and a cherry picker was left spinning in the wind precariously above the streets of Sydney's CBD on Wednesday morning.

Emergency crews spent the night trying to secure the 3.9-tonne machinery that was dangling from Bangaroo's Tower One.

The area surrounding the at 217-metre-high building was evacuated and closed off following the incident as a precaution.

The crane's collapse
The crane's collapse

Police have closed off Hickson Road between Napoleon Street and Towns Place at Barangaroo.

Lendlease released a statement and described the situation as "an incident impeding the operation of a crane".

"We have secured the crane and as a precaution have created an exclusion zone and evacuated people on that part of the project," the statement continued.

"Safety remains our number one priority and engineers are assessing the crane and will advise next steps in due course."

There are no reported injuries but the exclusion zone remains in place.

The spider boom crane was bolted to the top floor of the tower lowering machinery from Tower One when it collapsed. Photo: 7 News
The spider boom crane was bolted to the top floor of the tower lowering machinery from Tower One when it collapsed. Photo: 7 News

The spider boom crane was bolted to the top floor while lowering machinery from Tower One when it collapsed on Tuesday about 2pm.

A spokesman for the Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union told Fairfax Media the crane was "hanging precariously" from the top of the tower.

"They were lowering pieces of machinery and it has sort of collapsed under that load," he said.

"As to the cause, it is hard to tell at the moment. It is up 51 floors."

It is not the first major incident at the site that has been plagued by near-misses, fires and injuries.

The premier waterfront development has recorded more incidents than any other site in NSW, a freedom of information request revealed last month.

There were 123 incidents reported at the site between 2014 and June 2016 – more than five times the rate of all other worksites in the state, the ABC reported.