A giant crane on an offshore construction vessel has collapsed during an installation procedure for an offshore wind farm in the South China Sea.

Operated to Huadian Heavy Industries, the crane on the Yuhang 58 vessel collapsed onto the vessel when the arm broke during installation work last week of a monopile for an offshore wind farm project sponsored by China Guangdong Nuclear (CGN).

There are no reports of any injuries. The extent of the damage to the crane and the vessel is unknown.

The vessel — which has a lifting capacity of 3800 tonnes and maximum working radius of 165 metres — is owned and built by Jiangsu Yuhang Offshore Engineering, based in Jiangyin city in eastern China’s Jiangsu province.

Huadian Heavy Industries, a unit of one of China’s top five power utilities Huadian, won the bid from CGN to install the monopile in late July after having offered a competitive price of 343 million yuan ($49 million) against domestic rivals CRCC Harbour & Channel Engineering Bureau Group and Shanghai Boqiang Heavy Industries.

The project, called the Guangdong Shanwei Houhu offshore wind farm, is located 21 kilometres offshore Lufeng city, Guangdong province, in water depths of 23 to 27 metres.

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The 500-megawatt wind farm consists of 91 wind turbines, each with capacity of 5.5 MW.