Two dead, 17 injured as building collapses in New York

Detailed summary

Two people were killed and at least 17 others injured, including seven children, when a three-story building collapsed into a neighboring ...

NEW YORK: Two people were killed and at least 17 others injured, including seven children, when a three-story building collapsed into a neighboring construction site in New York on Wednesday, city authorities said.

The building in Flatbush, Brooklyn, fell into an excavation site next door, trapping several people. Firefighters spent hours trying to free them using drones, search dogs and chainsaws. Images from the scene showed firefighters sifting through rubble in front of what appeared to be a residential building with its walls torn away.

“We do not know how many people are still in the collapse zone, and this will be a prolonged operation,” New York Fire Department (FDNY) Commissioner Lillian Bonsignore told reporters late Wednesday. She said four of the injured were in critical condition. More than 250 firefighters and paramedics responded, and the cause of the collapse is under investigation.

New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani praised the emergency services for their work at a site with “precarious wreckage to navigate and dangerous voids beneath the surface.” One witness, Melissa Orna, told The New York Times: “The whole building started shaking, and then it just fell.”

Ahmed Tigani, commissioner of the city’s Department of Buildings, said construction workers were carrying out excavation at the time of the collapse. Developers had approved plans for a three-story building on the site and were seeking permission for a nine-story building, he said. The department’s inspectors were checking the structural stability of nearby buildings. — AFP

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