Worker plummets to death

MINNEAPOLIS, Dec. 5 (UPI) -- A worker removing snow from a glass-ceiling roof at one of downtown Minneapolis' signature towers fell several stories to his death Wednesday.

The accident occurred shortly before 2 p.m. at the 57-story IDS Tower's Crystal Court, The Star Tribune reported. The name of the man, who fell five or six stories, was not released, the Minneapolis newspaper said. A second worker also clearing snow from the roof wasn't hurt.

Michelle Ochs said she heard a crash and pieces of the Plexiglas ceiling hit the stone floor, followed by the doomed worker, a moment of silence and then screams from witnesses. Emergency personnel attempted life-saving procedures but soon covered the body with a sheet.

"It was like something from a movie," Ochs told the Star Tribune. "It was very surreal."

For years, the 35-year-old IDS Tower dominated the Minneapolis skyline. Its Crystal Court was featured in the opening of the 1970s TV sitcom the "Mary Tyler Moore Show." In 1996, a 32-year-old man committed suicide by jumping from the building's 30th floor, and in 2001 another man leaped from the top floor to his death.