A 12-storey apartment block in the U.S. state of Florida has partially collapsed, sparking a major emergency response.
Online videos showed a large portion of the building in the town of Surfside, just north of Miami Beach, reduced to rubble, with the apartments' interiors exposed.
While there were no official confirmations of death or injury so far, the American Broadcasting Company said eight people had been hospitalised and CBS reported that at least one person has died.
It was unclear how many people lived in the building or were inside at the time of the incident, but local news station NBC 6 South Florida reported that firefighters pulled one boy from the rubble alive.
Police blocked nearby roads, and scores of fire and rescue vehicles, ambulances and police cars swarmed the area.
“We’re on the scene so it’s still very active,” Sergeant Marian Cruz of the Surfside Police Department said. “What I can tell you is the building is 12 floors. The entire back side of the building has collapsed.”
It is not yet known what caused the collapse.
