Two children among eight killed in New York building collapse

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New York authorities said Thursday that two children were among the eight people killed after a residential building collapsed, prompting a frantic overnight search by…

New York authorities said Thursday that two children were among the eight people killed after a residential building collapsed, prompting a frantic overnight search by firefighters to pull people from the rubble.

The three-storey property in Brooklyn fell Wednesday afternoon into a neighbouring excavation site where construction workers had been preparing foundations for a planned development.

"This has been a devastating morning and evening for our city," said New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani, who announced the latest death toll and said over a dozen more were injured.

One of those killed was Ecuadoran national Gabriel Siguencia, 22, whose stepsister said in a tearful interview that he was working overtime at the construction site when the building collapsed.

"We went from hospital to hospital, trying to find him, showing pictures, but nobody knew anything until they told us he passed," Kayla Chimborazo, 20, told AFP and other journalists.

"He just came here to do work to be able to provide for his family back in Ecuador. He's just the sweetest person," she added, saying he had a wife and son.

The New York Times reported that the youngest victim was aged nine, and that nationalities included Ecuador, Guatemala and Guinea.

New York's fire department declared Thursday afternoon there were no further victims at the site after emergency workers spent hours searching with drones and canine units.

The building, a three-storey structure dating from 1930 with four apartments and a commercial space on the ground floor, collapsed onto the nearby excavation site.

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