KEY POINTS:
An Auckland worker who tried to recover a suspended steel painter's box is in hospital with severe lacerations to an arm and cuts to his neck after the box swung out across Queen Street, sending him crashing through a window.
Emergency services were called to the old ASB Building on Queen St this morning after the box, used to clean and paint high rise buildings, fell off the building.
It was dangling above the first level, resting on a glass ceiling over-hang.
A northern fire communications spokesperson told NZPA firefighters used their cherry picker extension to get close to the basket but because of a weight limit could not move the box.
The fire service closed off the footpath and two lanes of traffic, as the glass was starting to give way.
Recovery of the box was halted when a trained abseiler who was attempting to secure it was pushed through a window as it slipped off the glass over-hang.
The man was taken to hospital with severe lacerations to his arm and cuts to his neck.
No-one was in the painter's box at the time.
While broken glass fell onto the pavement no pedestrians were injured.
- NZPA
