Brooklyn Building Collapse Kills 1 and Injures 10 as Firefighters Search Rubble for Trapped Victims

A three-story building collapsed in Brooklyn's Flatbush neighborhood on Wednesday afternoon, killing one person and injuring 10 others, as firefighters dug through piles of rubble searching for people trapped beneath the wreckage.

The collapse happened around 4 p.m. at 2625 Bedford Avenue, near the intersection with Flatbush Avenue, the New York City Fire Department said. The first emergency call came in at 4:01 p.m., and crews quickly declared a major technical rescue.

One person was pronounced dead at the scene, and four of the injured were seriously hurt, a fire department official said. At least one person remained trapped hours after the collapse, and a child was among those injured, New York City Council member Farah N. Louis told CNN affiliate Spectrum News NY1.

Firefighters pulled at least two people alive from the debris soon after arriving, and video from the scene showed a man being carried away on a stretcher around 4:45 p.m. The injured were taken to area hospitals, including Kings County Hospital.

The building, which had a store at ground level and apartments above, stood at the edge of a lot where a one-story building had been demolished earlier this year for a construction project. The cause of the collapse has not been determined, and the city's Department of Buildings was at the scene investigating.

City records show that a demolition contractor working at the neighboring site was issued a violation in April for unlawfully continuing demolition work despite a Department of Buildings stop-work order. Officials have not said whether the adjacent excavation or demolition work played any role in the collapse.

New York City Emergency Management set up a Red Cross help center for residents affected by the collapse, and advised people to avoid the area around Bedford, Newkirk and Flatbush avenues as road closures remained in place through the evening. The search continued into the night, with firefighters using floodlights and listening devices as they worked to confirm that no one else remained under the rubble.