A building collapse in Brooklyn, United States, leaves eight dead
By the AFREEQUE newsroom, based on Le Quotidien d'Oran
On Thursday, rescuers ended the search in Flatbush, Brooklyn, United States, after establishing there were no more victims, bringing the death toll to eight. A three-storey building dating from 1930 collapsed onto a neighbouring excavation site where workers were digging, and 250 rescuers were mobilised with dogs, drones and helicopters, according to AFP.
Some 250 rescuers searched the site in Flatbush, a neighbourhood of Brooklyn in New York with large Caribbean communities, using dogs, drones and helicopters in heavy rain, AFP reports. The building that collapsed, three storeys high and dating from 1930, housed four flats and a ground-floor commercial space; it fell onto the neighbouring excavation site, where workers were digging the ground.
A neighbouring building was also damaged, with one of its walls torn away, leaving a staircase and rooms exposed on the rubble. Among the victims was Gabriel Siguencia, 22, an Ecuadorian national and worker on the site, according to his half-sister Kayla Chimborazo, 20. She recounts spending the night searching for her half-brother from one hospital to another, before learning of his death in early afternoon. He had agreed on Wednesday to work overtime to send more money to his family still in Ecuador.
Annemarie, 60, a nursing assistant who lives on the street behind the building, tells AFP that it could have been her.
Ahmed Tigani, head of the municipal buildings department, says the developers of the site had obtained a valid permit for a three-storey building.
