A security guard riding an elevator in a Times Square office tower was killed when the elevator car malfunctioned, hurtled upward and smashing into the top floor.

The unidentified 50-year-old guard was riding a freight elevator at Five Times Square, a building that opened just two years ago, when the counterweight broke, rocketing the car into the top of the 37th floor at 4:36 p.m., according to an FDNY source. A second elevator car was stalled while in transit, and the two passengers were rescued without injury, the source said.

Kenneth Kang, 30, an accountant who works in the building, said he worries whenever he gets on an elevator that it will plummet to the bottom of the shaft, not the top.

“I always fear about the free-falling, not the other way around,” said Mr. Kang.

Srilakshmi Veeramachaneni, 25, an auditor for Ernst & Young, said she isn’t worried about riding the building’s elevators, despite the fatal mishap.

The 1.1-million-square-foot office tower, located at 41st Street and Eighth Avenue, opened in May 2002. The building is owned by Boston Properties and serves as the world headquarters for professional services firm Ernst & Young, which leases the tower.

SUSPECT DIES IN CHASE

A suspect fleeing from the scene of a drug raid in Harlem fell to his death after leading officers on a chase through two apartment buildings and across the rooftops of Manhattan yesterday, police said. Hassan Cherry, 27, fled an apartment at 479 W. 146th St. in which Manhattan North Narcotics officers were serving a search warrant for drugs and weapons. Cherry fled through the rear window, and up onto the roof.

According to police, he then eluded officers by jumping from rooftop to rooftop. Police caught up with Cherry when he appeared on the roof of the Verizon building at 380 Covenant Ave., where he scaled down from the roof and entered into the front window of an under-construction apartment at 450 W. 147th St. He fell out of the rear window and plunged to his death.

Law enforcement sources said Cherry had been arrested eight times, mostly on drug charges. He lived near the apartment police served the search warrant on, at 250 W. 146th St.

NYPD GIVES TERROR BRIEFINGS

The NYPD said its counterterrorism bureau is briefing security personnel at various commercial and tourist sites that were videotaped by a Queens resident arrested recently in North Carolina. The sites include the American Express Building, the Circle Line, the Museum of National History, South Street Seaport, the Verizon Telephone Building, the Statue of Liberty, and the Williamsburg and Brooklyn bridges. Kamran Akhtar, 35, of Elmhurst, Queens, filmed scores of buildings and tourist locations in nine cities nationwide, according to the FBI. He is being held on immigration charges and has no known terrorism ties.