An Australian family is facing an anxious wait on the wellbeing of their relatives after a tower collapsed in Miami, Florida.
The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) is providing consular assistance to the family of the residents who were living in the residential block when it collapsed on Thursday.
Four people have been killed and 159 are still missing, as authorities continue to search for survivors.
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An elderly Australian couple is feared to be among the missing, reports The Sydney Morning Herald.
Three bodies were found overnight from Thursday into Friday in the wreckage of Champlain Towers South in Surfside, Miami-Dade Fire Rescue Assistant Fire Chief Raide Jadallah said — adding to one found early Thursday.
Australian Miami resident Joseph Waks told 9News that the couple were from Sydney but had lived in Melbourne and split their time between Australia and Miami.
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Local media has reported that Australians were among people in the building.
NPR local reporter Danny Rivero tweeted: "We've been told many Argentinians and Australians were in the building as well, and that all are unaccounted for. This is an international disaster."
DFAT officials said yesterday the Australian Embassy in Washington was closely monitoring developments and was "making urgent enquiries" to determine if Australians were in the building when it collapsed.
The number of people unaccounted for is now 159, Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava told reporters — up from the figure of 99 that officials gave Thursday afternoon
https://twitter.com/TooMuchMe/status/1408115188969127938?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw"We will continue search and rescue, because we still have hope we will find people alive," Levine Cava said at a news conference on Friday.
Three of the four victims have been identified, according to Dr Emma Lew, director of the Miami-Dade County Medical Examiner Department. One victim died at a hospital. No other information was provided.
Two victims were being treated at Jackson Health System hospital, a spokesperson said.
About 55 of the 136 units at the building a few kilometres north of Miami Beach collapsed at around 1.30am. Thursday, leaving huge piles of rubble on the ground and materials dangling from what remained of the structure, officials said.
Since then, numerous search and rescue personnel have been scouring the rubble, including from the surface, with search dogs, sonar and cameras.
Structural engineers also have been shoring up other places — such as areas near a parking garage underneath the rubble — to allow crews to tunnel underneath with light machinery.
The cause of the collapse wasn't immediately known.
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