Three-story building collapses in Brooklyn... 5 dead, 17 injured (comprehensive report 2)

The Associated Press reported on the 12th that a three-story building collapsed in Brooklyn, New York City, USA on the afternoon of the 11th (local time), killing at least five people and injuring 17.

The local fire department said at a press conference that all of the injured were taken to hospitals, and four of them were in critical condition.

Authorities said seven of the casualties were children, but did not specify whether children were among the dead.

Authorities deployed sniffer dogs to search the remains of the building until late at night, and as additional deaths were confirmed in the process, the death toll increased from 2 to 5.

While the exact number of missing people is not known, the number of casualties is likely to increase as search operations continue.

According to CNN, the building collapse occurred around 4 p.m. in Flatbush, an area with a large black and Afro-Caribbean population.

The New York Times reported that the collapsed building consisted of a first-floor store and four houses.

The cause of the collapse is still under investigation. However, New York City Building Commissioner Ahmed Tighani said that at the time the building collapsed, excavation work to build a new building was in progress in an adjacent vacant lot.

Most of the remains of the complex building containing apartments and first-floor shops collapsed into an excavation pit at a nearby construction site, forming a huge pile.

Another building that shared a wall with the collapsed building remained standing without collapsing, but one wall was torn off, exposing its interior.

New York City Mayor Zoran Mamdani said about 250 firefighters were currently engaged in rescue operations. “The situation is very tricky and rapidly changing,” he said, explaining the difficulty of the work, “we have to navigate through unstable debris and there are dangerous voids below the surface.”

According to authorities, one firefighter also suffered minor injuries during the search and rescue process.