Two more bodies recovered from rubble of collapsed block of flats in Surfside, Florida

Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava said on Saturday two more bodies were found in the rubble of a collapsed condo building, bringing the number of confirmed dead to 24. The number of people who remain unaccounted for in the collapse was 124.

A top Miami-Dade fire official, meanwhile, told family members of people missing in the rubble that demolition workers planned to bring down the remainder of the building on Sunday.

Worries have intensified over the past week that the damaged structure could come tumbling down on its own, endangering the crews below and complicating the search for victims.

Fire Rescue Assistant Fire Chief Raide Jadallah told family members during a morning briefing that the building would be brought down “as soon as possible. First thing tomorrow.”

But he cautioned that there “may be some hiccups.” A follow-up meeting will be held in the afternoon to finalise details of the demolition, which could be a precarious operation as experts enter the building to bore into the structure to install explosives.

Concerns that the still-standing portion could tumble have curtailed the search in areas close to that section, and shifts detected by monitors early on Thursday prompted a 15-hour suspension of the entire search until engineers determined the site was safe to restart.