Scores missing as building falls

Surfside – Rescue teams combed through the rubble of an oceanfront apartment block near Miami Beach that partially collapsed on Thursday, killing at least four people and leaving another 159 unaccounted for amid fears of a much higher death toll.

An unknown number of residents are feared to have been asleep in the 12-storey building in the town of Surfside when the collapse reduced a large portion of it to a pile of debris.

“One side of the building just fell completely. It doesn’t exist any more,” said Nicolas Fernandez, 29, an Argentinian resident of Miami who had yet to hear from friends staying overnight in his family’s unit in the building.

“I don’t know about them. I don’t know if they are alive,” he said.

Authorities said they were still without news of 99 people who may have been inside the building when part of it came crashing down. So far, 102 others have been accounted for, Miami-Dade mayor Daniella Levine Cava said.

Search-and-rescue teams with sniffer dogs will work through the night, Levine Cava said.

“As the day comes to an end, their day does not,” she said at a news conference.

At a Surfside community centre, relatives of the missing cried as they waited for news. Tenants of the ruined building who were lucky enough to have been away when disaster struck pondered sudden homelessness.

Erick de Moura, 40, spent Wednesday night at his girlfriend’s house.

“I just came back and the scene is shocking,” he said. “There is a lot of pain. I’m blessed that I am alive.”

Around 55 apartments were affected by the collapse, according to Miami-Dade Fire Rescue assistant chief Ray Jadallah, who told a news conference that emergency services arrived at the scene at around 1.30am, evacuating 35 people from the building.

The building was occupied by a mix of full-time and seasonal residents and renters and officials have stressed it is unclear how many people were actually inside at the time.

“It’s hard to get a count on it,” Miami-Dade County commissioner Sally Heyman told CNN. “You don’t know between vacations or anything else.

“The hope is still there, but it’s waning.” –

Picture: AFP DEVASTATION. Rubble hangs from a partially collapsed building in Surfside north of Miami Beach on Thursday. The multi-story apartment block in Florida partially collapsed early on Thursday, sparking a major emergency response. Reports said at least four people had died.