A man died yesterday while dismantling a crawler crane on a construction site in the Marylands heights area of St Louis County, Missouri. Police identified the victim as Steven Michael Lillicrap, 21.

He is reported to have inadvertently hooked his safety harness lanyard onto the crane hoist cable and was dragged into one of its hoists. Lillicrap was pronounced dead on arrival at the hospital.

A spokeswoman for the general contractor, McCarthy construction, said Lillicrap was an operator apprentice who was employed by a subcontractor - Ben Hur Construction.