A window cleaner plummeted to his death after falling from a block of flats.

The man died yesterday morning after the fall from the fifth floor of a six-storey block of flats in Ilkley.

What should have been a day of celebration for residents of the 21 apartments at Wells Court turned into tragedy when the incident happened at about 10.20am.

Residents had been marking the final day of a massive refurbishment at the block of flats.

The death of the man - who has not been identified - is to be investigated by the Health and Safety Executive.

Andy Davies, 76, who lives opposite the scene, said he had been working on a computer in an upstairs room with his son when he heard a shout.

"I heard a large shout and then him landing," Mr Davies said.

"I looked out and saw him lying on the ground below the balcony."

Mr Davies telephoned for an ambulance while his son went over to the victim - who had landed on a concrete walkway next to a raised grass verge - to see if anything could be done to help him.

His son Jerry, 49, said that the man had landed on his side as if someone had already put him in a recovery position, but he was unconscious.

He said that a cleaner had come out of the building and she also tried to help the victim.

"There was not a lot we could do," he said.

A spokesman for West Yorkshire Police said: "We were called to a report of a man falling from a building in the centre of Ilkley.

"The Health and Safety Executive has been inform-ed."

The man will not be identified until relatives have been informed, but he is believed to be local.

A spokesman for the West Yorkshire Metropolitan Ambulance Service said efforts to save the man's life had continued at the scene and during journey to the hospital.

Michael Shepherd, Wells Court resident and secretary of the lease-holding company for the flats, said that yesterday was the final day of the first phase of a massive refurbishment project on the 40-year-old building.

Ironically, the £400,000 project had seen Wells Court surrounded by scaffolding with workers operating at very high levels without mishap since September.

The dead man was a self-employed window cleaner working at the flats.

He was not connected to the Sheffield-based company Concrete Repairs Limited which carried out the refurbishment.