At least 20 workers were crushed to death in western India when a giant crane collapsed at a highway construction site, disaster response officials have said.

The accident took place on the Samruddhi Expressway in the Thane region of Maharashtra state early on Tuesday.

The crane toppled onto large concrete slabs, with debris then smashing down as labourers worked on the highway, India’s National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) said.

The NDRF said late Tuesday that 20 bodies had been recovered, and three injured people had been taken to hospital.

An official at the Thane police control room said at least five of the people killed were engineers.

Teams of rescue workers from the NDRF, the fire department and police rushed to the site, using cranes to remove debris and rescue trapped people.