Two dead, six injured in Chelsea balcony collapse Local MP Greg Hands wrote on Twitter that he had been told that the combined weight may have caused the railing to give way. He told the Telegraph that he extended "enormous sympathies" to the relatives of the men who died. One witness, who saw the aftermath of the accident, said: "There was a lot of screaming and shouting. One man was impaled on the railings. He looked in a very bad way, I think he was one of the men who died. I think the people who received other injuries were all removal men too, or at least most of them were. A neighbour, who did not want to be named, told BBC News: "They were trying to pull a couch up to the first floor apartment with ropes. Was apparently too heavy. The fence broke off and fell on the workmen below. Another added the balcony "did not collapse" but that the gate fell on to two workmen who had been on the ground. The scene in Cadogan Square where a balcony collapsed (David Rose/The Telegraph) One of the men who died is believed to be about 18 and was working with his father shifting furniture into the multi-million pound apartment, it was revealed today. The older man was heard shouting 'He's my son, He's my son, he's moving' as emergency workers desperately tried to save the teenager's life. Other witnesses claimed the men hoisting the sofa on the first floor balcony of the newly-renovated property were Polish and had been working in the square for more than a year. Another man, also working on the same job, is understood to have fled raising the possibility he was working in breach of health and safety regulations. A resident of the Square said they had spoken to one of the first people on the scene who arrived minutes after the tragedy. The woman said: "She's a housekeeper who works a couple of doors away. She said she ran out and saw the men injured. There was a man working there with his son. He was young, about 18. The police closed of all the square and they wouldn't let the man get to his son. He was still alive and the dad was shouting 'He's my son, he'my son. He's moving, he's still alive.' The father saw the son fall and he was trying to reach him. He was on the floor and there was blood everywhere. The balcony where railings collapsed and fell 30ft on to removal men on the street (Clara Molden/The Telegraph) Reg Ramanoop, who lives on Cadogan Square, said: "I saw the men trying to remove a sofa. They were trying to get it through the balcony entrance when it collapsed. He took pictures of the air ambulance landing in the nearby square. He added: "We heard a noise and thought the scaffolding had collapsed. We had seen them trying to remove a sofa and the next thing we knew the balcony had collapsed. These balconies have been here hundreds of years, you don't know the weight and loads they can take. There are real safety concerns about them. I saw the air ambulance land. It happened earlier this morning. There were people rushing around everywhere. It's incredibly sad. Sudarma Rajapasha, who has worked on the street for six months as a housemaid, said: "I had seen them trying to get a sofa out. I think they were removal men. I think the owners were moving house. The balcony just fell down. I think there were eight people injured. It was very sudden and very sad. We saw ambulances and fire crews everywhere. The scene was awful. I couldn't look. I saw them struggling with the sofa at the beginning when I arrived for work and then it was the crash and we knew something bad had happened. An elderly local woman, Theresa Roberts, saw two men lying dead or injured in the road on her way back from the hairdresser, her son said. Vere Skeete, 40, whose parents live on the street, said: "My mum saw two men lying on the pavement, dead bodies. The ambulance was there but they hadn't covered up the bodies. She said she screamed because there was blood everywhere. She was just coming home from the hairdressers, she is still in shock. Resident Abel Damoussi said: "I saw the rope dangling down from it. I think they were trying to remove a sofa from the balcony and the railings gave way. We heard an unusual commotion and we didn't know exactly what had happened. It's usually a very quiet place so we knew something bad had taken place. We discovered there had been a terrible tragedy and people had died. They appear to have attached the rope to the railings to help hoist and remove furniture. It needs an engineer to calculate the weight bearings, you can't just attach a rope to railings of that age to lift heavy items. It doesn't take rocket science. Many of the railings will have rust and weathering. There needs to be a full investigation into this. Work is always going on on the properties here permanently. There was work two doors away from it and there could have been vibrations from that which may have had am impact. There is only the rope left dangling from where it happened and two poles left sticking up when I went to see what had happened. A London Ambulance Service spokesperson said: "Every effort was made to resuscitate a patient but sadly a man died at the scene. Six patients were treated for minor injuries but did not need to go to hospital. The sofa can be seen behind the police cordon (Nicola Harley) A workman working at a neighbouring property who did not wish to be named, said: "We heard a crash. We have been working here all week. We know people have died and others injured. We thought Romanian and Bulgarian workers were putting up scaffolding and it has collapsed. The front of the balcony railings have fallen to the ground. We are all in shock. We are working on scaffolding too. It's a nice quiet area. I've not seen anything like this before. Police cordoning off the scene (Nicola Harley) The incident has happened on the first floor of the exclusive row of terrace houses. A dozen officers are at the scene and the road at Cadogan Square, Chelsea, has been closed off. A tent has been erected and placed around the scene where the victims fell. A number of long ropes are hanging from the balcony to the ground where the plastic sheets are gathered. Cadogan Square has been closed to traffic following the incident. London Fire Brigade and Metropolitan Police also attended the accident at the exclusive address. Flats in Cadogan Square, formerly home to England football manager Sven-Goran Eriksson and Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho, are worth around £10 million according to estate agents. The square, which is just off Sloane Street, is part of the Earl of Cadogan's estate and is one of London's most exclusive addresses, lined with haute couture boutiques. A playground of the rich and famous, bankers and executives, Cadogan Square is also believed to be the home of tycoon Flavio Briatore and the celebrity jeweller Theo Fennell. A London Ambulance Service employee tweeted: The London Fire Brigade also attended, making the scene safe and giving first aid to the injured. Richard Scrivener, from the London Fire Service, who was at the scene, said: "When we arrived we made the scene safe, securing parts of the iron balcony that had broken away in the fall. Crews assisted London Ambulance Service to provide first aid to those injured in the fall as well as to a number of onlookers who were suffering from shock. A spokeswoman for the Metropolitan Police said: "We were called just after 10am today [Friday] to reports of two people injured. Officers attended Cadogan Square where a balcony had collapsed. One man was pronounced dead at the scene. A second man later died in hospital. A cordon is in place. Health and Safety Executive and the Local Authority have been informed and an investigation is underway to establish the circumstances. Caroline Jennings of Cadogan Estates, which owns properties on the square, said: "It's incredibly sad. It's not our property and we are not involved. Mr Hands welcomed the police and HSE investigations, and suggested that "wider issues," such as the "pressures" that removal men come under, should be examined. He said: "People underestimate the risks involved in removals in central London. These are places where removal people are put under quite a lot of pressure. Quite rightly they must get the health and safety aspects right, but they are also under pressure of time, with the parking metre running down, high parking costs and other jobs pending. Sinclair Johnston, an engineer who has worked on another property in the square, said the decorative railings such as the one which collapsed cannot be depended upon to support weight. Speaking at the scene, he said: "These sort of constructions are always very fragile and the iron railings can rust and the stone can become fragile and break up so you never really know how strong they are. It's OK in an ordinary way but if you put any pressure on them, if you lean on them, there's no way of knowing - you can't depend on them. It's something that engineers are very aware of. The ironwork is incredibly heavy so if it falls off it can be a disaster. The buildings were built in around 1890 and I should think the railings are original or have been there for a very long time.