Update | Death toll from New York blast, building collapse rises to seven
Around 60 people were injured and several people missing after a huge gas explosion destroyed two residential blocks
The death toll from an explosion that collapsed two New York apartment buildings after an apparent gas leak rose to seven on Thursday, and the number of injured is close to 60, police said.
New York City Police Detective Marc Nell said a seventh victim of Wednesday’s blast was pulled from the buildings’ rubble, adding that no one had died at a hospital.
A search continued for survivors and trapped bodies among the still-smoking rubble of two adjoining buildings that housed 15 apartments on a largely residential Upper Manhattan block at East 116th Street and Park Avenue.
The blast, which scattered debris across nearby rooftops, brought down the adjoining five-story buildings, with a total of 15 apartments, at about 9.30am on a largely residential Upper Manhattan block at East 116th Street and Park Avenue.
New York Mayor Bill de Blasio called the incident “a tragedy of the worst kind” because the smell of gas was detected “but there was no indication in time to save people.”
His office said nine residents from the two collapsed buildings were still unaccounted as night fell.
The new, fifth fatality was a body pulled from the rubble, the fire department said early on Thursday, CNN and other news outlets reported. The death toll was described as likely to rise.