Desperate search for survivors of tower collapse continues

A TOTAL of 159 people are still unaccounted for after an oceanfront apartment building collapsed near Miami, killing at least four people.

The search at the 12-storey Champlain Towers South building just a few miles north of the Florida city’s South Beach is taking a toll on relatives who can do little but hope that their loved ones will somehow be found alive.

Scores of rescuers are using diggers, drones, microphones and their own bare hands to pick through the mountain of debris.

Miami-Dade county mayor Daniella Levine Cava said there is still hope of finding survivors in the rubble after the building collapsed on Thursday.

Assistant Miami-Dade county fire chief Raide Jadallah said rescue operations had continued throughout the night, with 130 firefighters working at the site.

Police director Freddy Ramirez has said authorities are working with the medical examiner’s office to identify the victims.

Rachel Spiegel is awaiting an update on her missing mother, 66-year-old Judy Spiegel, who lived on the sixth floor. “I’m just praying for a miracle,” Ms

Spiegel said. “We’re heartbroken that she was even in the building.”

Meanwhile, Jeanne Ugarte was coming to grips with what she feared was a tragic end for her friends Juan and Ana Mora and their son Juan Jr, who was visiting his parents in the tower.

“I know they’re not going to find them (alive),” Ms Ugarte said. “It’s been too long.”

Hopes are resting on how quickly crews can complete their grim yet delicate task in Surfside.

“Any time that we hear a sound, we concentrate in that area,” assistant fire chief Jadallah said.

“It could be just steel twisting, it could be debris raining down, but not specifically sounds of tapping or sounds of a human voice.”

Surfside mayor Charles Burkett said crews are doing everything possible to save as many people as they can.

“We do not have a resource problem, we have a luck problem,” he said.

Eleven injuries were reported, with four people treated in hospital.

The missing included people from around the world.

Family and friends of missing residents have placed images of their loved ones at the scene

Photographs: PA Officials still do not know exactly how many residents or visitors were in the building when it fell, but they are trying to locate 159 people considered unaccounted for