This is the moment a crane lowering a brand-new Russian yacht into the water topples over and crashes down on top of it with the boat then sinking.

The incident took place at the Fortecia residential complex, in the Russian town of Kronstadt, which is located on Kotlin island just west of Saint Petersburg in the Gulf of Finland.

The footage shows the new, blue-hull yacht being slowly lowered into the water by a crane, to which it is attached with a system of belts and chains.

At first, the workers can be seen smiling and joking, visibly relaxed. Everything seems to be going according to plan until suddenly the boat starts to descend considerably faster as the base of the crane is lifted up into the air.

The top of the yellow crane topples over and comes crashing down on top of the boat as workers flee left and right.

Local media reports that the yacht subsequently sank, as can also be seen by the images shown online by witnesses.

No injuries have been reported. It is also unclear who owned the yacht and how much it was worth.