A 29-year-old man was lucky to escape with his life when a heavy crane lifting a prefabricated house toppled over and crushed his family home in Khon Kaen. 

The accident happened around 11am on Friday.

A crane was lifting a prefabricated house weighing at least one tonne from the back of a lorry, moving it to a plot of land. It had been lifted more than 10 metres above some high-voltage power lines when the crane became unstable.

The crane and its load fell onto a two-storey wooden house next to the plot. 

Construction workers and site supervisors immediately rushed into the damaged home, calling out loudly to locate anyone trapped inside. One man inside the house responded, and was later helped to safety after workers opened a window to free him.

The wooden house suffered major damage, with nearly half of the structure crushed and household goods and personal belongings destroyed. The house was deemed unsafe for living in.

The 29-year-old rescued man said he had been inside the house preparing to leave for work later in the day. 

He had just left his bedroom when he heard a deafening noise “like an explosion”, and then dust and debris filled the house. Unable to find a way out, he remained trapped until freed by his rescuers. 

An initial assessment pointed to crane-operator error as the possible cause of the accident.