The death toll from a weekend crane accident in a New York City neighbourhood rose to a final count of seven on Monday as search crews found the bodies of two construction workers and a woman.

An emergency worker passes a section of crane at the scene of the crane collapse on Manhattan's East Side on Monday.
(Peter Morgan/Associated Press)

New York officials said the three bodies found Monday were the last casualties from the accident.

The first body, belonging to a construction worker was pulled from the rubble in the morning, and police announced the second discovery in the afternoon.

Later, crews announced they had found the body of a woman who was inside an East Side Manhattan townhouse that was destroyed when the crane toppled.

On Saturday, the crane, 19 stories up, came loose and broke away from an apartment tower under construction.

John LaGreco, owner of Fubar, a saloon on the ground floor of the townhouse, told the Associated Press that the woman had come from Miami to celebrate St. Patrick's Day and visit a friend who lived in the building.

He said the woman was in her friend's second-floor apartment at the time of the accident, adding that her friend was rescued.

The crane fell onto a four-storey brownstone and seriously damaged five other buildings in the affluent neighbourhood, killing six construction workers and the woman.

Along with the seven deaths, there were 24 other people injured, including 11 first responders. Eight people are still in hospital.

Officials said a preliminary investigation showed a steel collar used to tie the crane to the side of a half-built apartment tower fell as crews tried to install it, damaging a lower steel collar. With the loss of the lower support collar, the counter-weights at the top of the crane caused it to topple. 

The crane was to have been extended Saturday so workers could start work on a new level of the planned 43-storey building, said an owner of the company that manages the construction site. It had passed inspection on Friday.

With files from the Associated Press