Four more bodies found in wreckage of collapsed Miami apartment block as death toll rises to 16

US-COLLAPSE-BUILDING
The carnage after the Miami Surfside building collapsed.
AFP via Getty Images
John Dunne @jhdunne30 June 2021

Four more bodies have been found in the rubble of a collapsed Miami apartment block raising the death toll in the disaster to 16 people.

Nearly 150 people are still unaccounted for after The Champlain Towers South building in Surfside collapsed on Thursday, prompting a search and rescue operation.

Miami-Dade Assistant Fire Chief Raide Jadallah told has confirmed that rescuers found the bodies on Tuesday night.

In addition to the four bodies, crews also found other human remains.

No one has been found alive since the day the building crumpled to the ground leaving terrified residents running for their lives.

Rescuers were able to build a ramp for a crane to reach areas at the top of the pile they had not been able to access before. However, they fear tropical storms heading towards the area could hinder the ongoing operation.

Officials have already recruited experts from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) - who worked on the Twin Towers attack - to gather evidence at the site in Surfside.

Mayor Daniella Levine Cava vowed to meet with engineering, construction and geology experts to review building safety issues and “ensure a tragedy like this will never, ever happen again” in Florida.

Meanwhile state attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle said she will pursue a grand jury investigation into why the 12-story Champlain Towers South complex came down on Thursday.

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