Eight people, including two children, have died after a three-storey residential building collapsed in Brooklyn, New York, leaving more than a dozen others injured.
According to AFP, the building collapsed on Wednesday afternoon into a neighbouring construction site where workers were preparing foundations for a new development.
New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani confirmed the death toll on Thursday, describing the incident as devastating.
“This has been a devastating morning and evening for our city,” Mamdani said.
Firefighters searched the rubble overnight using drones and rescue dogs before confirming that no additional victims remained at the site.
Among those killed was 22-year-old Ecuadorian construction worker Gabriel Siguencia, who was reportedly working overtime when the building collapsed.
Authorities have not yet established what caused the disaster.
However, city records reviewed by AFP revealed that the neighbouring construction site had received a stop-work order in April over unsafe demolition conditions.
The company involved was later fined $10,000 after work continued, although officials have not linked those violations to the collapse.
Mamdani said authorities were inspecting approximately 100 other construction sites connected to companies involved in the development.
The mayor promised a full investigation and said anyone found responsible would be held “fully accountable”.
