A woman is now fighting for life after being crushed by a pallet of bricks that appeared to be falling from the sky.
The bricks fell 70ft from a crane as she walked past a building site is a young mother who had just dropped her child off at school, MailOnline has learned.
Passers-by rushed to help the 29-year-old woman from East London as she lay unconscious on the pavement yesterday morning among bricks and broken wood.
The woman is understood to have dropped off her young son at St Paul’s and St Luke’s Church of England Primary School, which is across the road from the building site in Mile End.
She is still in a critical condition in hospital while work at the development appears to have been paused with a Health and Safety Executive investigation ongoing.
A friend of the woman told The Evening Standard: 'Her family are devastated, we all are. She has ended up fighting for life in hospital on her 29th birthday.
'We had seen pallets of bricks wobbling up there, it was just not safe. It could have been any of us. The family and all of us want answers.'
Mother Bernadette Hegarty, vicar of St Paul’s of Bow Common Church, which is attached to the school, rushed to the scene minutes after the accident at about 9.30am.
This is basket on the crane from which the pallet of bricks is believed to have fallen
The vicar told how paramedics brought the young woman back to life after suffering multiple injuries.
Mother Bernadette told MailOnline: ‘The young woman looked very wounded. The paramedics brought her back.
‘I sat down and prayed with her as the paramedics worked to bring her back. The Ambulance Service worked very hard and they managed to bring her back [to life].
‘She is now critical in hospital. I did not see the accident but I went over to comfort her after I heard what had happened.’
The young mother is believed to have been on her way to a local supermarket when the pallet of bricks fell upon her.
Prayers will be offered for the young woman at a Maundy Thursday Service and at Good Friday Service at Bow Common Church.
Mother Bernadette told MailOnline: ‘She is a well-liked member of the community. I know her to say hello to. We are all in deep shock by what has happened, as are the workers on the building site.
‘Our thoughts and prayers are with the young woman and her family at this difficult time.’
Another parent from St Luke’s Church of England Primary School described the young woman as a ‘lovely girl’. She added: ‘We are all devastated by what happened.’