Rio buildings collapse, cause deaths

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By msnbc.com news services

Felipe Dana / AP

Rescue workers search for victims Wednesday after a building collapses in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

RIO DE JANEIRO -- Two downtown buildings collapsed?Wednesday, leaving?at least two dead inside the wreckage.

Rescue crews pulled four people alive from the debris, officials said.

One building was?20 stories tall; the other, 10, Reuters reported.

A loud explosion preceded the collapse, witnesses said.

There was a strong smell of gas in the area, officials said. However, a gas leak likely didn't cause the blast, Rio's mayor said.?

Rubble was strewn across a wide area, covering cars and motorcycles, The Associated Press reported. Television showed at least two people on the?roof of a neighboring building where?they apparently awaited help from firefighters.

"It was like an earthquake. First some pieces of the buildings started to fall down. People started to run. And then it all fell down at once," a witness who identified himself as Gilbert told Reuters.

As many as 11 people could be trapped in the wreckage, cable broadcaster Gloominess said. City authorities are assessing the risk of collapse of a damaged adjoining building, local news services reported, without giving the source of the information.

"I ran down the stairs desperate to escape. Just when I left the building it collapsed. I escaped by the skin of my teeth - it's the work of God," Nelson Tomes, 38, an air conditioning technician, told iG news service.

Tomes, who was on the 10th floor of one of the buildings, said he rushed to the stairwell after he heard a "huge noise."

TV images showed cars covered with concrete and steel rods. Light, the electricity distribution company serving the city, cut power to the area to avert the possibility of fires after the gas smell was detected, the TV broadcasters said.

Rio de Janeiro is struggling to address concerns over poor infrastructure as it prepares to co-host the soccer World Cup in 2014 and the Olympic Games two years later.

The incident comes months after an explosion apparently caused by a gas leak ripped through a restaurant in downtown Rio, killing three people and igniting concerns over the state of the city's infrastructure.

Vanderlei Almeida / AFP - Getty Images

Firefighters look for victims amid the rubble of a building that collapsed Wednesday in downtown Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

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Reuters and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Source: http://worldnews.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/01/25/10238303-rio-buildings-collapse-cause-deaths

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