At least 11 dead after 3-storey building collapses in Brazil

At least 11 people have died and three remain missing after an illegally occupied building collapsed in northeastern Brazil, the authorities said yesterday.Officials said the building collapse took place early on Friday morning around 6.35am, when many residents were likely still sleeping.It was not immediately clear what caused the collapse.Drone footage captured by Reuters showed the apartment building reduced to rubble, as firefighters and rescue workers rushed around the site.Firefighters and rescuers were continuing to search for a woman and two children under the rubble following the collapse on Friday in Paulista, a municipality in the state of Pernambuco, on the outskirts of Recife, the state’s capital.The dead include women and children, aged five to 45, according to a statement yesterday from the Pernambuco civil defence services.It said a 65-year-old woman and two adolescents were pulled from the rubble alive.The three-storey structure, which was attached to a larger housing complex, had been closed in 2010 due to a risk of collapse but had been illegally occupied since then, the authorities said.In April, a building in similar condition collapsed in the city of Olinda, also in Pernambuco, leaving six people dead.Building collapses in Brazil generally happen in poorer neighbourhoods where illegal construction is rampant.In 2020, two irregularly constructed buildings in a poor neighbourhood of Rio de Janeiro collapsed after days of intense rainfall. Twenty-four people died.Recife, a coastal city with around 1.5mn residents, has been grappling with heavy rainfall in recent days.The city and its surrounding metro area were put under a "state of attention” declaration earlier on Friday, meant to trigger swift action from emergency workers.Pernambuco Governor Raquel Lyra warned earlier in the day that more rain is expected, recommending that locals make sure they can access safe structures.