A three-year-old girl in Calgary is dead after high winds caused a large piece of metal to fall from an 18-storey building under construction.

The little girl died when she was struck by a six-metre-long piece of metal shortly before 8 p.m. Saturday, police said.

Several sheets of metal had become dislodged from the building on 9th Avenue S.W. and fell 30 to 40 metres, landing on three people who were on the sidewalk.

Emergency workers transported a seven-year-old boy and man in his late 30s to hospital with non-life-threatening injuries. A woman in the group was not injured.

The top eight storeys of the building are under construction and fire crews had to secure additional pieces of building material on the upper floors in high winds before the scene could be deemed safe.

One witness described the winds as being like a hurricane.