Search continues after at least 1 dead, 99 possibly missing in U.S. Florida building collapse

Photo released by the Miami-Dade Fire Rescue shows first responders rescuing survivors from a partially collapsed residential building in Miami-Dade County, Florida, the United States, on June 24, 2021. At least three people were dead, and 12 others injured, while 99 people were possibly missing after the 12-story residential building partially collapsed early Thursday in Miami-Dade County, local media reported. (Miami-Dade Fire Rescue/Handout via Xinhua)

WASHINGTON, June 24 (Xinhua) -- At least one person was killed and 12 others were injured, while 99 people were possibly missing after a 12-story residential building partially collapsed early Thursday in Miami-Dade County in the southeastern U.S. state Florida, local media reported Thursday.

A total of 102 residents have been accounted for after 15 hours of searching, while at least 99 people remain missing, Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava confirmed at a press conference.

So far, at least 35 people trapped in the building and two others from beneath the rubble have been rescued, said Miami-Dade Fire Rescue Assistant Chief Raide Jadallah. Among the 12 injured, two were in critical condition.

It's unclear exactly how many residents were in the building when the incident happened, but the death toll could soar as rescue crews are carefully combing through the wreckage and remaining structure, trying to find any survivors.

Officials said search and rescue efforts, which started before dawn, could take nearly a week.

The oceanfront condominium, built in 1981, has 136 units, and approximately 55 of them collapsed on the northeast corridor, according to Jadallah.

Video footage from the scene showed a large section of the building collapsed into a pile of rubble, and a young boy was pulled alive from the wreckage.

The Miami-Dade Fire Rescue received a call at around 1:30 a.m. local time (about 0530 GMT) about the partial collapse of the Champlain Towers South condominium in the beachside town of Surfside, about six miles (around 9.6 km) north of Miami Beach.

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis declared a state of emergency in Miami-Dade County on Thursday, following U.S. President Joe Biden's earlier announcement that the federal government is prepared to provide further assistance once DeSantis formally declares a state of emergency.

"It's the unimaginable," said Levine Cava earlier on Thursday. "It's a terrible, terrible nightmare that we have here on Surfside."

Nearby Bal Harbour Mayor Gabriel Groisman, who toured the site of the collapse with DeSantis and other elected officials, said what struck him was the silence at the scene.

"The site is devastating," Groisman told local media. "What stood out was the quiet, ... to see the building just sitting there in just silence, you know the unfortunate truth of the fact there are many people that are in that rubble and all you hear is silence. And it's really deafening."

"Buildings like this do not fall in America," Surfside Mayor Charles Burkett told local media on Thursday night. "This is a third-world phenomenon, and it's shocking."

It's not immediately clear what caused the collapse. Miami-Dade officials said investigators were not expected to enter the rubble until the search and rescue mission had concluded.

The collapsed building was determined to be unstable a year ago since it was sinking at a rate of about 2 millimeters a year in the 1990s and could have slowed or accelerated in the time since, according to a study in 2020 by Shimon Wdowinski, a professor in the Department of Earth and Environment at Florida International University.

Wdowinski told local media outlets that his research is not meant to suggest certainty about what caused the collapse.