Multi-level building collapses in Florida

A major search and rescue operation is on for survivors after a multi-storeyed residential building partially collapsed in Miami on Thursday, prompting the local fire department to rush 80 units in response, according to officials.

“MDFR is on scene of a partial building collapse near 88 Street & Collins Avenue. Over 80 MDFR units including #TRT are on scene with assistance from municipal fire departments. Updates will be provided on Twitter as they become available,” tweeted Miami-Dade Fire and Rescue.

It said that a media staging area at a field near 86 Street & Collins Avenue has been set up.

“Miami-Dade Fire Rescue is on scene, they’re conducting rescues as we speak,” NBC Miami quoted Surfside Police Sgt Marian Cruz as saying. “It’s a very active scene, I advise everyone to just stay out of the area so that fire rescue and officers can conduct rescues and do what we need to do,” said Sgt Cruz.

Residents were reportedly being moved to the Surfside Community Centre and streets in the area were closed, according to NBC Miami.

Visuals from the scene showed a side of the building collapsed in a huge pile of debris and police cars pulling up, as fire trucks gathered in the street below, lights flashing.

The Miami Beach Police department also tweeted that they and the Miami Beach Fire Department & Ocean Rescue are assisting the town of Surfside in the rescue operations. There is no confirmation yet about whether there are people trapped inside the building or of any casualties.

Miami-based journalist Joel Franco who was at the scene, tweeted that urban search and rescue trucks were coming in to look for survivors.

“Some of these people were just rescued from the Surfside condo building that’s partially collapsed,” he tweeted, although there is no official confirmation on the rescue from authorities.

Mail Online reported that the building is an eleven-storey apartment block called Champlain Towers South and it was not known yet what caused the collapse.

“It looks like power has been cut for a portion of the area near the partial collapse,” Mr Franco said. Katie Daviscourt, a journalist with The Post Millennial, shared a video from the collapse site and said “Miami/Dade Fire and Rescue Team searching for bodies. This is horrific.”