New York City’s fire department reported on Thursday that more victims had been found after a three-story residential building collapsed, raising the death toll to at least eight, with 19 injured.

The building collapse on Wednesday in the Flatbush neighborhood of Brooklyn prompted a massive emergency response from approximately 250 firefighters and rescue workers.

Four people were transported to hospital in critical condition, the fire department said.

Firefighters continued to work in a large pit of rubble, next to what appeared to be another residential property with its walls torn down, exposing a bedroom and a clothing wardrobe.

One witness, named only as Anthony, told PIX11 News that he heard people screaming and a “bomb”-like noise as the building collapsed.

Another witness, Melissa Orna, told The New York Times: “The whole building started shaking, and then it just fell.”

The building fell into an adjacent work site, where construction workers had been performing excavation, Ahmed Tigani, commissioner of New York’s Department of Buildings, told a press conference late on Wednesday.

“We do not know how many people are still in the collapse zone, and this will be a prolonged operation,” FDNY Commissioner Lillian Bonsignore said on Wednesday.

Among the injured were seven children, she said.

New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani praised the emergency services for their work, saying the site involved “precarious wreckage to navigate and dangerous voids beneath the surface”.

“I want to ask New Yorkers to please take a moment to pray for those who passed away today and all of those who are mourning their loss,” he added at the news conference.

The city’s Department of Buildings said its inspectors were on the scene “assisting with recovery operations and conducting structural stability inspections of nearby buildings”.

Tigani said that developers had plans approved for a three-storey building at the site and were pursuing permission for a nine-storey building.