The New York Times cites a New York Fire Department officials who said three people were injured, two seriously, while a city official put the number of injured at 15.
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De Blasio explained at the conference that the crane collapsed while being lowered into a safer, more secure position.
The fallen crane stretched most of the length of the block, about 10 blocks north of the World Trade Center in the Tribeca neighbourhood.
Twisted red-colored metal from the runaway crane smashed into parked cars and debris littered streets and sidewalks. Gas odors have been reported in the area, and the nearby courthouse at 71 Thomas St was evacuated.
Lisa Guttman told The Associated Press on Friday her brother-in-law David Wichs as “the most brilliant person ever”.
“Crane safety is a crisis, but the City has not treated it like one”, Stringer said in a statement.
Officials told the New York Daily News that firefighters are investigating a report that a wrecking ball attached to the crane snapped off and fell through the roof of a building.
A witness who works nearby says he saw onlookers trying to help a person who was trapped in a auto.
De Blasio said there have been gas leaks as the result of the collapse.
The collapsed crane bore the name Bay Crane. None of the injuries was life-threatening, but three workers had to be extricated from beneath fallen machinery.
Officials with both Galasso Trucking, which operates the crane, and the Bay Crane Company, which owns it, declined to comment.
Bride-to-be Nesh Pilay, 25, is assisted by a New York City firefighter after the crane collapsed near the beauty salon where she was having her hair done.
Capable of lifting 330 tons, the rig had been working for about a week to replace air conditioning equipment and generators on the roof of 60 Hudson Street, a 425-foot-tall, Jazz Age skyscraper that once housed Western Union and takes up an entire block, officials said.
The Metropolitan Transportation Authority said the 1 train was skipping stops at the Franklin Street station near the collapse site.
In 2012, a construction crane partially collapsed on top of a almost completed, 90-story luxury apartment building during high winds brought by Superstorm Sandy, prompting fears it would crash to the ground.
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The “crawler crane” is among 376 used in construction in New York City.
