Two people died and at least 17 others were hurt — including seven children — when a building collapsed Wednesday at the edge of a construction site in New York City, officials said, sparking a frantic search by firefighters combing through large piles of rubble.
The collapse occurred around 4 p.m. near the intersection of Bedford and Flatbush avenues in the Flatbush neighborhood of Brooklyn, the Fire Department of New York said. It was not known what caused or led up to it.
The FDNY said two people were removed from the rubble soon after the collapse. Aerial video showed dozens of firefighters scouring for others, at least two of whom were trapped in the wreckage. A senior city official later said those two were in the process of being freed just before 5 p.m.
Two people died and four of the injured were in critical condition, FDNY officials said at a news conference Wednesday night. Seven children and a firefighter were among the injured, according to the FDNY.
The fire department noted that the number of victims could increase, since it was not known how many people were in the building when it collapsed or whether everyone had been accounted for.
Video from NBC New York’s Chopper 4 showed firefighters pulling an injured person from the rubble around 4:45 p.m. He was taken away on a stretcher. Another person was seen being taken away on a stretcher just after 6:30 p.m.
The building that collapsed appeared to have been three stories tall, with a business on the ground floor. It was next to an excavation site after a one-story building that had previously been there was fully demolished.
