At least four people have been confirmed dead while the number of the missing rose to 159 after a 12-story residential building partially collapsed early Thursday in Miami-Dade County in southeastern U.S. state Florida, local media reported on Friday, Trend reports citing Xinhua.
Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava said Friday morning that three more people were found in the rubble overnight and 120 people are now accounted for.
The Champlain Towers South condominium, built in 1981, partially collapsed around 1:30 a.m. local time on Thursday in the beachside town of Surfside, about 6 miles north of Miami Beach.
About 70 of the condo's 130 apartments were destroyed or damaged, according to Frank Rollason, director of Miami-Dade Emergency Management.
All the numbers are "fluid" because some residents may not have been in the building when it collapsed, the mayor said, noting that rescuers will "continue searching because we still have hope that we will find people alive."
U.S. President Joe Biden has declared a state of emergency authorizing funding and other disaster relief to Surfside. The Federal Emergency Management Agency was sending support, the mayor said.