Eight dead after Brooklyn apartment building collapses, NY mayor says

Detailed summary

The number of people who were at home when the 1930-era building collapsed was not immediately known, officials said.

The number of people who were at home when the 1930-era building collapsed was not immediately known, officials said.

NEW YORK: Eight people were killed when an apartment building in Brooklyn collapsed into a neighbouring construction site on Wednesday (Nov 11), New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani said.

At least 17 people, including three firefighters were injured, Mamdani said on Thursday, as rescue operations continued.

The city's fire department earlier told Reuters that four people were in critical condition after the three-storey building in the Flatbush area of Brooklyn collapsed at about 4pm local time on Wednesday and tumbled into the adjoining construction site where excavation work was underway.

New York television station WABC-TV reported that at least four survivors were pulled from the wreckage about two to 2.5 hours after the collapse, including a pregnant woman.

The number of people who were at home when the 1930-era building collapsed was not immediately known, officials said. They did not say how many workers were on the construction site at the time.

City Fire Department Commissioner Lillian Bonsignore said seven children were among those affected by the collapse. She declined to say whether any of the dead were children or adults.

Mamdani said the city's Department of Buildings and law enforcement officials were investigating the cause of the collapse.

A firefighting crew that happened to be in the neighborhood was on the scene within a minute of the collapse and helped pull the first victims from the debris, authorities told reporters at an evening press conference on Wednesday.

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