NEW YORK, United States (AFP)—The death toll from a residential building collapse in New York rose to at least eight, including two children, on Thursday, after more bodies were recovered from the rubble, officials said.

Rescuers worked through the night, searching the site in the Flatbush neighbourhood of Brooklyn where the three-story building collapsed on Wednesday.

They recovered four more bodies overnight, while two others died in the hospital, Fire Chief Lillian Bonsignore told a news conference.

That brought the death toll to eight, including two children, New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani said, adding that another 19 people were injured and one is in critical condition.

“This has been a devastating morning and evening for our city,” he said.

Shop worker James Williams, 60, said he witnessed the building collapse after hearing loud banging noises throughout the morning.

“I smelled the smoke from the fumes, and I was watching bricks fall. But to see, like two minutes later, to see the building collapse and fall, it was just devastating,” he told AFP.

“There were people trying to get out… I saw somebody on the side of the staircase, and I’ll be honest with you, I didn’t even really want to think about that.”

Another witness, 14-year-old Kenneilia Reid, told AFP: “When I was walking by, I started seeing dust all of a sudden, and I was like, what is going on? When I turned my back, I saw the whole building collapse.”

The building, a three-story structure dating from 1930 with four apartments and a commercial space on the ground floor, collapsed onto a nearby excavation site.

A massive emergency response was launched, with about 250 firefighters and rescue workers and search dogs on site.

An adjacent building was also affected, with one of its walls torn away, leaving a staircase and rooms exposed on the rubble.

The cause of the collapse was not immediately clear, and firefighters continued to work at the site on Thursday.

– Stop-work order –

“My stomach hurts. I can’t imagine you were just in your kitchen doing something” and then “you’re not any place. It’s crazy,” Annemarie, a 60-year-old care worker who did not want to share her last name, told AFP. She lives on the street behind the collapsed building.

“It could have been me, you know, it’s really scary,” she said.

The building fell into an adjacent work site, where construction workers had been excavating, Ahmed Tigani, commissioner of New York’s Department of Buildings, told a press conference late Wednesday.

Tigani said that developers had plans approved for a three-story building at the site and were pursuing permission for a nine-story building.

According to documents from the city’s building department reviewed by AFP, the construction site had been issued a stop-work order in April due to potentially dangerous demolition conditions.

However, work continued, resulting in a $10,000 fine for the company involved. No link has yet been established between these violations and the building’s collapse.

Mamdani said five main entities were involved at the site and authorities on Thursday started “sweeping” 100 other construction sites they are associated with around the city.

The mayor promised a thorough investigation and to hold anyone responsible “fully accountable.”

The city’s Department of Buildings said its inspectors were on the scene “assisting with recovery operations and conducting structural stability inspections of nearby buildings.”