NEW YORK (The Thursday Times) — A three-storey building collapsed in the Flatbush neighbourhood of Brooklyn on Wednesday afternoon, killing at least two people and injuring 17 others, including seven children, New York City officials said.
The mixed-use building toppled into a construction site next door at about 4pm, trapping residents and construction workers inside, said Lillian Bonsignore, the city’s fire commissioner. Rescuers pulled a survivor from the rubble, and a pregnant woman was among those brought out.
Four of the injured were in critical condition and 12 were stable, according to the fire department. A firefighter was treated for minor injuries.
A prolonged operation
The cause of the collapse is under investigation. Bonsignore said rescuers faced “dangerous and perilous conditions” and that the search would be “a prolonged operation”, warning that moving too quickly could disturb the piles of debris.
Mayor Zohran Mamdani said the first crew reached the scene one minute after the first emergency call, because it was returning from a nearby job. The fire department sent up a drone to look for anyone still trapped, and the city opened a help centre for affected families at the local YMCA.
Footage from the scene showed exposed bedrooms and stairwells in an adjoining building. Flatbush is home to a large Black and Afro-Caribbean community.
