Building collapse in Brooklyn kills at least two

A three-story building in Brooklyn's Flatbush neighborhood collapsed on Wednesday afternoon, resulting in at least two fatalities and over 10 individuals being hospitalized, according to New York City officials. The city's Fire Department chief, John Esposito, stated that the cause of the incident was under investigation. The four-unit apartment building, constructed in 1930, tumbled into an adjoining construction site where excavation work was taking place.

The exact number of people present in the building at the time of the collapse remains unknown, as officials were still determining the extent of the victims. Rescue crews arrived at the scene within a minute of the collapse and helped extricate the first victims from the debris. Mayor Zohran Mamdani confirmed that at least two people had lost their lives, while more than ten others were taken to local hospitals with critical and non-life-threatening injuries.

The total number of confirmed victims reached 19, including seven children. Fire Department Commissioner Lillian Bonsignore revealed that seven people, among the known victims, were children, but she did not specify whether the deceased victims were children or adults. One firefighter also sustained minor injuries during the rescue efforts.

Local news reports indicated that search teams, equipped with dogs, combed through the rubble, removing debris in buckets and seeking any signs of trapped individuals. About two to two and a half hours after the collapse, four survivors, including a pregnant woman, were pulled from the wreckage. The Fire Department initially reported four people as critically injured and six others with minor injuries before the first two survivors were rescued.

City officials emphasized that it would take several days for rescue teams to fully search the site and determine the overall number of missing individuals.