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Eight Who Died in Building Collapse Reflected New York’s Diversity

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The victims included construction workers, a food deliveryman and two school-age children. Many had come to the city looking for a better life.

A person with clasped hands. They stand between two other people near an emergency vehicle at night.

Nov. 12, 2026Updated 6:06 p.m. ET

The eight people killed when a building in Brooklyn collapsed into a construction site on Wednesday were a cross-section of the bustling, fast-growing Flatbush neighborhood.

They included elementary-school-age cousins, construction workers from Ecuador and Guatemala, and a food deliveryman from Guinea in West Africa, according to an internal police report and family and friends of the victims.

Six died at the building at 1321 Flatbush Avenue and the construction site next door, where workers had been excavating when the building crashed down around 4 p.m. on Wednesday. Two others were pulled from the wreckage alive but died at hospitals, Mayor Zohran Mamdani said at a news conference on Thursday.

By midafternoon Thursday, firefighters had halted rescue operations after determining there were no more victims in the rubble.

“This has been a devastating evening and morning for our city,” the mayor said earlier.

Another 18 people, including some firefighters, had been injured, Mr. Mamdani said. Officials have not determined what caused the collapse.