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		</div><p>At least one person was killed and many others were pulled from rubble after a beachfront condo building partially collapsed outside Miami on Thursday.</p>
<p>A wing of the 12-storey building in the community of Surfside came down with a roar around 1:30am.</p>
<p>By late evening, nearly 100 people were still unaccounted for, authorities said, raising fears that the death toll could climb sharply.</p>
<p>Officials did not know how many were in the tower when it fell.</p>
<p>Surfside mayor Charles Burkett said: “The building is literally pancaked.</p>
<p>“That is heartbreaking because it doesn’t mean, to me, that we are going to be as successful as we wanted to be in finding people alive.”</p>
<p>Hours after the collapse, searchers were trying to reach a trapped child whose parents were believed to be dead.</p>
<p>In another case, rescuers saved a mother and child, but the woman’s leg had to be amputated to remove her from the rubble, Frank Rollason, director of Miami-Dade emergency management, told the Miami Herald.</p>
<p>Video showed fire crews removing a boy from the wreckage, but it was not clear whether he was the same person mentioned by Mr Rollason.</p>
<p>Teams were trying to enter the building from a parking garage beneath the structure.</p>
<p>Governor Ron DeSantis, who toured the scene, said television did not capture the scale of what happened.</p>
<p>Rescue crews are “doing everything they can to save lives. That is ongoing, and they’re not going to rest,” he said.</p>
<p>Teams of 10 to 12 rescuers at a time entered the rubble with dogs and other equipment, working until they grew tired from the heavy lifting, then making way for a new team, said Florida chief financial officer Jimmy Patronis, the state’s fire marshal.</p>
<p>He told Miami TV station WPLG: “They’re not going to stop just because of nightfall. They just may have a different path they pursue.”</p>
<p>Authorities did not say what may have caused the collapse. On video footage captured from nearby, the centre of the building appeared to fall first, with a section nearest the ocean teetering and coming down seconds later as a huge dust cloud swallowed the neighbourhood.</p>
<p>Work was being done on the building’s roof, but Mr Burkett said he did not see how that could have been the cause.</p>
<p>President Joe Biden promised to provide federal aid if requested.</p>
<p>Hotels opened to some displaced residents, the mayor said, and deliveries of food, medicine and more were being hastily arranged.</p>
<p>About half of the building’s roughly 130 units were affected, the mayor told a news conference.<br />
<img src="https://londonglossy.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/3XEZWAUNMBG7ZOYODB4Q6NPPYM.jpg" alt="Florida building collapses, U.S." width="1200" height="675" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-168992" /><br />
Rescuers pulled at least 35 people from the rubble by mid-morning, and heavy equipment was being brought in to help stabilise the structure to provide more access, Raide Jadallah of Miami-Dade Fire and Rescue said.</p>
<p>The tower has a mix of seasonal and year-round residents, and while the building keeps a log of guests, it does not keep track of when owners are in residence, Mr Burkett said.</p>
<p>Nicholas Fernandez spent hours after the collapse trying to call two friends who were staying in the building with their young daughter.</p>
<p>The family had come to the United States to avoid the Covid-19 outbreak in their home country of Argentina, said Mr Fernandez, of Miami.</p>
<p>“The hope is that, perhaps, someone hears the call. I know there are dogs inside,” he said.</p>
<p>“I know it may sound ridiculous what I’m saying but there’s always hope until we hear different.”</p>
<p>A total of 22 South Americans were missing in the collapse — nine from Argentina, six from Paraguay, four from Venezuela and three from Uruguay, according to officials in those countries.</p>
<p>The collapse, which appeared to affect one leg of the L-shaped tower, tore away walls and ripped open some homes in the still-standing part of the building.</p>
<p>TV footage showed beds, tables and chairs inside. Air conditioners hung from some parts of the building, where wires dangled.</p>
<p>Barry Cohen, 63, said he and his wife were asleep in the building when he first heard what he thought was a crack of thunder.</p>
<p>The couple went onto their balcony, then opened the door to the building’s hallway to find “a pile of rubble and dust and smoke billowing around”.</p>
<p>The former vice mayor of Surfside said: “I couldn’t walk out past my doorway.”</p>
<p>Surfside city commissioner Eliana Salzhauer told WPLG that the building’s county-mandated 40-year re-certification process was ongoing.</p>
<p>Ms Salzhauer said the process was believed to be proceeding without difficulty. A building inspector was on-site Wednesday.</p>
<p>She said: “I want to know why this happened. That’s really the only question … And can it happen again? Are any other of our buildings in town in jeopardy?”</p>
<p>The seaside condo development was built in 1981.</p>
<p>The area’s neighbourhood feel offers a stark contrast to the glitz and bustle of nearby South Beach.</p>
<p>The area has a mix of new and old apartments, houses, condominiums and hotels, with restaurants and stores serving an international combination of residents and tourists.</p>
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