Last update: 12.30pm (AEST)
A desperate search is underway for 99 people missing after a 12 storey apartment tower collapsed in Florida early Thursday morning.
At least one person died in the collapse of the Champlain Towers in Surfside, just to the north of Miami Beach, and a further 11 people have been injured while at least 102 people had been accounted for. Foreign nationals are believed to be among those who were in the building when it collapsed.
Emergency services were on the site at about 2am Thursday morning. Rescuers were using dogs, listening devices and cameras as they searched the rubble for survivors.
Surfside Mayor Charles Burkett told reporters that the “back of the building, probably a third or more, is totally pancaked”.
One man who witnessed the aftermath of the collapse told CNN that it “looked like something from 9/11,” in comments referring to the attacks that brought down New York’s Twin Towers in 2001. One woman who lives in the complex where the collapse occurred described it as being like an earthquake.
The collapse destroyed almost half of the 130 units in the complex. The cause of the collapse remains unknown. The building was constructed in the 1980s and had recently been undergoing work on its roof.
US President Joe Biden said the Federal Government would “be there” for the people of Florida. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis issued a state of emergency declaration Thursday night.
