Crane buckles under weight of church steeple

Bystanders watching the removal of a church steeple from a Canadian church have had a lucky escape after the crane carrying the towering spire snapped and fell just metres from where they were standing.

In dramatic footage captured by local woman Kimberly Sinclair, the steeple from Milton Christian Church in Nova Scotia can be seen lurching back and forth before swinging away from the building and eventually plummeting to the ground.

Minutes after assuring her children that the steeple was not being stolen, Ms Sinclair, a PR executive and Milton local, and her family scrambled for cover as the crane buckled and collapsed onto a nearby highway.

Ms Sinclair and her family were among an unknown number of people witnessing the relocation of the spire, which was scheduled for demolition.

"After the drop, the crane fell on power lines and thousands were without power for hours," Ms Sinclair said in a blurb accompanying the video posted on her YouTube account.

"Miraculously no one was injured."

The Milton Christian Church, which dates back to 1834, is being dismantled in order to move it to a new site.