Four people have been confirmed dead following the collapse of a multi-story condominium in Miami metropolitan area on Thursday, local authorities announced on Friday.
According to officials, 159 residents of the collapsed building are still unaccounted for with fears that the toll may rise significantly.
Three bodies were pulled from Champlain Towers South overnight, Miami-Dade County Mayor, Daniella Levine Cava said on Friday morning.
This comes after one woman was confirmed dead on Thursday when she was pulled from the rubble and rushed to hospital.
‘Tragically, I woke up to learn that three bodies had been pulled from the wreckage overnight,’ Cava said on ABC’s Good Morning America.
The building in Surfside, Florida, partially collapsed around 1.30am on Thursday and Cava told ABC News that the three people found overnight have not yet been identified.
Rescue operations are still ongoing and authorities are at the location trying to understand what caused the collapse, but Cava noted that so far there was no evidence of foul play.
At least 37 people have so far been rescued from the rubble or parts of the damaged building still standing, with 11 injured and four hospitalized.
According to Miami Herald, some of the relatives of the victims are at the local community center where they are awaiting results of DNA swabs that may help identify their loved ones.
Earlier on Friday, President Joe Biden approved an emergency declaration in Florida that authorises Department of Homeland Security, Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), to coordinate all disaster relief efforts at the site.
On Thursday, the multi-story condominium partially collapsed in the town of Surfside which is located just north of Miami Beach. Nearly 100 people were assumed to be in the tower when it collapsed around 2 a.m. local time.
Surfside Mayor, Charles W. Burkett on Thursday noted that the way part of the building collapsed on itself made him pessimistic that the rescue won’t be “as successful as we want to be to find people alive.”
The affected building was home to people from around the world, according to the Associated Press. Residents included a family from Argentina, a retired Miami-area teacher, Orthodox Jews from Russia, people from Israel and several other people from South America.
Meanwhile, scientists had warned that the 12-story Miami condo building was sinking and in a potentially dangerous condition one year before it collapsed on Thursday.
A 2020 study from Florida International University found the Champlain Towers South sea-view condo development was sinking at a rate of about 2 millimeters a year in the 1990s because it sits on reclaimed wetlands.
The oceanfront building was also due to have its safety recertified for the first time in 40 years this year which included the need for ‘extensive repairs for rusted steel and damaged concrete‘ on parts of the structure.
It has also been revealed that the tower had recently undergone construction work on its roof, sparking fears this may have piled on additional weight to the sinking structure.
Authorities have not yet determined what caused the collapse and Miami-Dade police have opened an investigation – though Mayor Cava said ‘there has been no evidence found of foul play.’
Watch a video of how the building collapsed below;
How pic.twitter.com/4OPFjTuvwR
— ًً (@someknew) June 25, 2021
See some aftermath photos from the collapse below;
