Officials reported that hundreds of firefighters and rescue workers searched through the rubble for survivors after a part of a residential tower collapsed in a seaside area of South Florida, USA. They stated that the collapse of the 12-story residential tower resulted in at least one death, while around 100 others were still unaccounted for. Authorities indicated that rescue teams had detected banging noises and other loud sounds but had not heard any human voices from beneath the rubble hours after a large portion of the "Champlain Towers South" building in Surfside collapsed, according to Reuters.
The residential tower, built in 1981, comprised over 130 housing units, approximately 80 of which were occupied at the time of the incident. The cause of the building's collapse remains unclear, but officials and locals mentioned that the tower was undergoing renovations for rehabilitation, and there was a neighboring structure under construction. Freddie Ramirez, director of the Miami-Dade Police Department, informed reporters that 99 people were reported missing. A fire department official stated that rescue teams had evacuated 35 individuals from the part of the building that had not collapsed, while two individuals were recovered, one of whom was deceased, from beneath the rubble after utilizing trained dogs and drones to search for survivors.
The exact number of occupants inside the building at the time of the partial collapse, which occurred around 5:30 AM GMT, is still unknown. Surfside Mayor Charles Burkett remarked to the media, "It’s hard to imagine how this happened," noting that construction work was taking place on the roof of the building, but there was no indication that this was the cause of the collapse. The Miami-Dade Police Department has taken over the investigation into the cause of the collapse. The county’s rescue and fire department tweeted earlier on Thursday that over 80 firefighting and rescue units were deployed at the scene.
