High-rise window cleaners left dangling 144 metres off the ground

Its what many would consider the stuff of their worst nightmares - dangling from the 48th floor of a 250-metre-high skyscraper.

This was how Monday morning started for two Austrian high-rise window cleaners, when their window-cleaning platform slipped to a perilous angle that left them hanging 144 metres above the ground.

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As the two men cleaned the undulating glass of the recently opened DC Tower in Vienna - Austria's tallest building - their platform stalled and dropped to a 45 degree angle.

The pair clung to the platform in strong winds while they waited for the Viennese fire department to rescue them.

A crew of 30 firefighters stabilised the platform to stop it from slipping any further. One cleaner escaped the ordeal unharmed and the other was treated for shock.

Daniel Knight, 26, a Sydney high-rise window cleaner, said he had never heard of anything similar happening in Australia.

The gear is certified by routine checks through several outsourced companies, he said.

He sympathised with the plight of the two Austrian window cleaners.

Theres not really much you can do, youd just have to hold on, he said.

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High-rise window cleaners left dangling 144 metres off the ground