People feared trapped as parking garage collapses in New York City

The city's searches Fire Department said searches were being conducted to make sure everyone was accounted for.

A parking garage partially collapsed Tuesday in lower Manhattan's Financial District, and firefighters were searching for people who might have been trapped in the debris, authorities said. One person was seen being carried out on a stretcher.

This photo provided by Charlie Franklin shows a partially collapsed parking garage in lower Manhattan's Financial District on Tuesday, April 18, 2023, in New York City. Officials didn't immediately release any information on injuries. (Charlie Franklin via AP)

Bystander video showed cars hanging precariously from a buckled upper deck of the three-story building, a few blocks from City Hall and the Brooklyn Bridge, and about half a mile (0.8 km) from the New York Stock Exchange.

“It felt like an earthquake,” said Liam Gaeta, a student at nearby Pace University. He said he heard “a large noise and a big rumbling, and then we all got evacuated.”

Other Pace students described hearing screams and seeing cars falling in the building, which caved in around 4 p.m.

The Fire Department said there were reports of people trapped and that searches were being conducted to make sure everyone was accounted for. At one point, firefighters were pulled out because of concerns about the building's stability, the department said.

New York Mayor Eric Adams was en route to the scene, said spokesperson Fabien Levy. He described what happened as a partial collapse.