NEW YORK (AP) – A parking garage collapsed on Tuesday in lower Manhattan’s Financial District in New York, United States, killing one worker, injuring five and crushing cars as concrete floors fell on top of each other like a stack of pancakes, officials said.
Vehicles tumbled into what looked like a frozen stream of sedans and SUVs. People nearby described a fearsome rumbling, followed by screams. Ahmed Scott arrived to collect his car after work and found a disaster in the making.
In a video he shot from across the street, someone off-camera yells, “Guard! 911! 911! There’s a building collapsing on Ann Street,” followed by the sound of something crumpling.
About 45 seconds later, two women run out, saying the building fell while they were inside it.
A man stands on a fire escape as bystanders try to figure out how to help him get down. He eventually did, Scott said.
“I hope nobody else is in there,” Scott recalled thinking, worrying for the garage workers he’d gotten to know.
A student at nearby Pace University Jadess Speller said the collapse “felt like an earthquake, like the earth opened up inside, like that’s how violent it was”.
Other students described seeing cars falling in the building. One vehicle landed on its end in the garage entrance, a photo posted by Mayor Eric Adams’ office showed.
Authorities believed they had accounted for everyone inside the building, but searches continued on Tuesday evening to make sure no one was in any of the squashed cars, Fire Department Chief of Operations John Esposito said.
One garage employee was rescued via a neighbouring roof 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,” Esposito said. Four of the injured were hospitalised and in stable condition, and the fifth refused medical attention, he said.
The garage caved in around 4pm, a few blocks from City Hall and the Brooklyn Bridge, and about 0.8 kilometre from the New York Stock Exchange. Pace evacuated an adjacent dorm 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 accommodations. It wasn’t immediately clear what caused the collapse.
City Buildings Department records show the three-storey structure has been a garage at least since the 1920s, and there are no recent permits for construction.
