KEY POINTS:
A man has been rushed to hospital with a severe laceration to his arm and cuts to his neck after the suspended steel painter's box that he was trying to recover, swung out across Queen Street and crashed him through a glass window.
The painter's box, used to clean and paint high rise buildings, fell off the old ASB building on Queen St and was dangling above the first level, resting on a glass ceiling over-hang.
Auckland fire station senior officer Jeff McCulloch said tension was put on the remaining cable holding the box.
"It slipped off the glass, swung out over Queen Street and then put him through the window," Mr McCulloch said.
Onlooker and abseiler Wayne Nelson saw the incident happen. He said the man trying to free the box was an expert in New Zealand.
He said the man had permission from Department of Labour staff but it was unclear how the accident happened.
"We're all trying to get people to use safety glass," said Mr Nelson. He said non-safety glass can be "lethal".
"It's that dangerous, because at the end of the day it could have cut his head off," Mr Nelson said.
He said the damage done to the building could cost up to $30,000.
Earlier this morning the glass was starting to give way and the fire department closed off the footpath and two lanes of traffic.
Mr McCulloch said no one was in the painter's box at the time.
Broken glass fell on the pavement but Mr McCulloch said there were no reports of any Queen St pedestrians being injured.
Firefighters had used their cherry picker extension to get close to the basket but -with a maximum 400kg limit - could not attempt to move the box.
Herald office administrator Sabrina Fernandes had just crossed Queen St at the Wellesley St intersection when the box fell.
"We heard the thud behind us and we turned around to see there was a pillar hanging precariously, sitting on the glass," Mrs Fernandes said.
She said luckily no one was underneath the glass but if it had fallen slightly earlier the situation could have been different.
"If it was slightly earlier then it definitely would have hit one of us. We were all under there, waiting for the signal," Mrs Fernandes said.
