Multi-storey car park collapses in New York, killing one

Five injured and cars crushed as concrete floors fall on top of each other

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  A collapsed car park in lower Manhattan, New York. AFP

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  An injured person is attended to. AFP

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  Firefighters attend the scene. AP Photo

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  A car between rubble. AFP

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  Piles of cars and debris. Reuters

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  A member of the New York Fire Department walks past a car covered in rubble. AFP

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  NEW YORK, NEW YORK - APRIL 18: FDNY Chief of Fire Operations John Esposito speaks during a press conference near the site of a parking garage collapse on April 18, 2023 in New York City. One person was killed and five were injured with one refusing medical treatment after the collapse of a parking garage in the Financial District next to a Pace University building. Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images/AFP (Photo by Michael M. Santiago / GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA / Getty Images via AFP)

A four-storey car park in New York City collapsed on Tuesday, killing one worker, injuring five and crushing cars, as concrete floors fell on top of each other, officials said.

Rescue teams used robotic devices after firefighters were told to pull back from the unstable structure in lower Manhattan’s Financial District, near the New York Stock Exchange and Pace University.

Officials said they believed all victims had been accounted for.

Pace University student Jadess Speller told AP the collapse “felt like an earthquake".

It was "like the earth opened up inside, like that’s how violent it was", she said.

One vehicle landed on its end in the garage entrance, a photo posted by Mayor Eric Adams' office showed.

Searches of cars still inside the structure continued on Tuesday evening, Fire Department Chief of Operations John Esposito told AP.

One garage employee was rescued after being trapped on an upper floor, he said.

“He was conscious and alert and moving around, calling us. He just couldn’t get down,” Mr Esposito said.

Four of the injured were taken to hospital and in stable conditions, and the fifth refused medical attention, he said.

The garage caved in at around 4pm local time, near to City Hall and the Brooklyn Bridge.

Pace evacuated an adjacent dormitory and classroom building and cancelled all evening classes as it assessed the buildings' safety.

School officials sent the displaced students to a student centre while working out other accommodation.

Don Mulligan was on the 17th floor of a nearby hotel when he heard a roar like a jet flying overhead and felt the high-rise sway.

“You knew something was happening,” Mr Mulligan, of Cincinnati, told AP. The hotel was evacuated, he said.

'Completely unstable'

The cause of the collapse was not immediately clear.

City Buildings Department records show the three-story structure has been a garage since at least the 1920s, and there are no recent permits for construction, AP reported.

Messages were left for a parking company that lists the garage as one of its properties.

The collapse left the building “completely unstable,” Mr Adams said.

New York's Chief of Fire Operations John Esposito near the site of a car park collapse on Tuesday in New York City. AFP

Mr Esposito said firefighters had to pull out because of the danger, conducting searches instead with a drone and robotic dog.

The building was “all the way pancaked, collapsed all the way to the cellar floor”, New York City's acting buildings commissioner Kazimir Vilenchik said.

"It all happened so fast," Thai Nguyen, 35, who lives in Chinatown and is a manager of the nearby Kollective Klub, told Reuters.

"Our store is two buildings from the parking garage, and we also have a hotel next to us. People ran inside asking if they could take refuge inside our store."