NEW YORK: New York City's fire department reported on Thursday that more victims had been found after a three-storey residential building collapsed, raising the death toll to at least eight, with 19 injured.
The building collapse on Wednesday in the Flatbush neighbourhood of Brooklyn prompted a massive emergency response from approximately 250 firefighters and rescue workers. Four people were transported to hospital in critical condition, the fire department said.
The building fell into an adjacent work site, where construction workers had been performing excavation, Ahmed Tigani, commissioner of New York's Department of Buildings, told a press conference late on Wednesday. "We do not know how many people are still in the collapse zone, and this will be a prolonged operation," FDNY Commissioner Lillian Bonsignore said on Wednesday. Among the injured were seven children, she said.
New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani praised the emergency services for their work, saying the site involved "precarious wreckage to navigate and dangerous voids beneath the surface". Tigani said that developers had plans approved for a three-storey building at the site and were pursuing permission for a nine-storey building. — AFP
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