The death toll has climbed to nine from the partial collapse of a 12-story condominium building in Surfside, Florida, as a massive search and rescue mission continued into its fourth day on Sunday, officials said.
Four more bodies were recovered overnight from the rubble of the Champlain Towers South condominium that buckled and gave way into a pancaking catastrophe around 1:30 a.m. on Thursday as many residents were asleep, Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava said at a news conference Sunday. More than 150 people remain unaccounted for.
Cava said additional human remains have also been recovered and DNA testing will be required to identify those remains.
Miami-Dade County Fire Chief Alan Cominsky said rescuers are still hoping to find survivors waiting to be saved in crevices and voids in the pile of concrete, twisted metal and personal belongings.
No survivors have been discovered in the wreckage of the building since early Thursday morning when Stacie Fang, 54, and her 15-year-old son were pulled from the debris alive, Cava said. Fang later died at a hospital.
About 130 residents of the 40-year-old building have been accounted for.
Cava also said emergency teams have cut a 125-foot long, 20-foot wide and 40-foot deep trench through the rubble to help enhance the search.
Surfside Mayor Charles Burkett said the Israeli Homefront Command Team and a rescue unit from Mexico have also joined the search.
Source-ABC
