One person was killed and five injured when a multi-storey car park collapsed in New York on Tuesday.
The disaster happened in lower Manhattan’s Financial District at roughly 4pm - crushing cars as concrete floors fell on top of each other like a stack of pancakes and killing one worker, officials said.
Eyewitnesses described hearing a terrifying rumbling, followed by screams as the building collapsed onto itself.
Our first responders rescued five of our fellow New Yorkers from the partial collapse of a parking garage on Ann Street between Nassau and William. They have been taken to the hospital. pic.twitter.com/KQ2p2t5kDJ
— Mayor Eric Adams (@NYCMayor) April 18, 2023
Jadess Speller, a student at nearby Pace University, said it “felt like an earthquake - like the earth opened up inside”.
Other students described seeing cars falling in the building.
Authorities believed they had accounted for everyone inside the building, but searches continued on Tuesday evening to make sure nobody was inside any of the squashed cars, Fire Department Chief of Operations John Esposito said.
He said firefighters had to pull out because of the danger, conducting searches instead with a drone and robotic dog.
Four of those injured were hospitalised and in a stable condition, and the fifth refused medical attention, he said.
William Flashnick, 19, was in a Pace classroom when he and his friends heard what they thought was an explosion. They ran to a window to see a plume of thick dust and the car park’s top deck cracked open, with vehicles tossed around.
One of his first thoughts was of the September 11, 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center, which looms over the neighbourhood.
“We freaked out,” he said. “Given the history of this place, it’s a little scary.”
Don Mulligan was on the 17th floor of a nearby hotel when he heard a roar he described as like a jet flying overhead and felt the high-rise sway. The hotel and Pace University buildings were evacuated.
One garage employee was rescued by firefighters via a neighbouring roof after being trapped on an upper floor.
City Buildings Department records show the four-storey building has been a garage at least since the 1920s, and there are no recent permits for construction.
The collapse left the site “completely unstable,” New York Mayor Mr Adams said at a news conference.
The building was “all the way pancaked, collapsed all the way to the cellar floor,” acting Buildings Commissioner Kazimir Vilenchik said.
Ahmed Scott arrived to collect his car after work as the disaster was taking place.
In a video shot from across the street, someone off-camera can be heard shouting: ”Guard! 911! 911! There’s a building collapsing on Ann Street,” followed by the sound of something crumpling.
About 45 seconds later two women run out of the car park, saying the building fell while they were inside it.
