Pregnant Brit mum, baby daughter and husband among 159 missing in Miami building collapse
A PREGNANT British mum and her family are among those missing after a portion of an apartment building collapsed near Miami Beach.
At least four people are dead while 159 people remain unaccounted for following Thursday's accident in Surfside, .
Read our Miami Beach building collapse live blog for the very latest news and updates...
Bhavna Patel, a 38-year-old UK-US dual citizen, her husband Vishal Patel, 42, and their daughter Aishani, one, are yet to be found, a family member told
A post read: "Please help me locate my family. They have been missing due to the . Any information at all is much appreciated!"
Cops said 159 remain unaccounted while 120 have since been marked as safe.
Surfside Mayor Charles Burkett said: "The building is literally pancaked. "That is heartbreaking because it doesn't mean, to me, that we are going to be as successful as we wanted to be in finding people alive."
Officials confirmed that 55 apartments of Champlain Towers South caved in, causing multiple injuries.
Miami-Dade fire crews said on Thursday out of the 37 people pulled from the rubble and out of the 11 people injured, four patients were taken to hospital.
Joe Biden declared a state of emergency in Florida following the apartment collapse and ordered federal teams to assist local response efforts.
The White House said: "The President's action authorises the Department of Homeland Security, Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), to coordinate all disaster relief efforts."
The declaration came just hours after while he was addressing reporters on Thursday.
He had forgot to mention the disaster before his VP stepped in.
After apologising, Biden said: "I say to the people of Florida: whatever help you want that the federal government can provide, we are waiting."
Footage shows rescue teamsthrough concrete under the collapsed Champlain Towers amid a desperate search for survivors.
Miami-Dade Police Director Freddy Ramirez described the collapse site as "very dangerous" and "very unstable".
Authorities fear that many more people will be seriously injured or dead as they continue to sift through the wreckage.
Fire Rescue Assistant Chief Ray Jadallah said crews heard sounds from under the rubble and that "all operations are occurring underneath" it.
He said: “We did receive sounds. Not necessarily people talking, but sounds. What sounds like people banging, not people but sounds of a possibility of a banging. We haven’t heard any voices coming from the pile.”
The cause of the high-rise collapse remains unknown.
Dozens were pulled from the block as around 80 emergency crews and five state agencies responded to the collapse on Thursday.
The exact number of people who are trapped under the rubble remains unknown.
One witness, who was in a neighboring building, said the collapse felt like a "tornado or earthquake".
He told : "It was the craziest thing I ever heard in my life."
Kimberly Morales told CNN that she was woken up by an alarm and residents knocking on her door.
Footage uploaded to social media appears to show debris falling from the ceiling of a resident's apartment.
It's reported that the building's foundations still continue to shake - hours after the accident happened.
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Mayor Burkett confirmed that roofing works had been going on for at least 30 days.
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The apartment complex was built in 1981 and around 80 residences of Champlain Towers South were occupied.
It had a few two-bed units on the market with asking prices over $600,000 (£430,000).
