Miami building collapse: Pregnant British mother, her husband and their one-year-old daughter among missing

‘They were angels, and now maybe God has come to reclaim his angels’, friend of family says

A pregnant British mother and her family are among 99 people missing after a 12-storey oceanfront apartment block collapsed north of Miami.

Bhavna Patel, 38, a duel British and US citizen, is missing along with her 41-year-old husband Vishal and their one-year-old daughter Aishani, a friend has said.

"They were angels," Vishal Abash told Sky News, "and now maybe God has come to reclaim his angels".

The death toll from the collapse his now risen to three, ABC News reported, as rescue workers are continuing their search for survivors amid the rubble.

Sounds of banging and other noises have been detected, but no voices emerged from the mounds of debris hours after a large section of the Champlain Towers South condominium in Surfside crumbled to the ground, authorities said.

Footage captured by a security camera nearby showed an entire side of the building crumbling in two sections, one after the other, throwing up clouds of dust at about 1:30 a.m. (0530 GMT) on Thursday.

The US president, Joe Biden, has approved an emergency declaration in the state of Florida and ordered federal assistance to supplement state and local response efforts.

"The president's action authorises the Department of Homeland Security, Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), to coordinate all disaster relief efforts," the White House said on Friday.

The Miami-Dade County Mayor, Daniella Levine Cava, told reporters on Thursday that 99 people remained unaccounted for some 18 hours after the collapse, though some may not have been in the building at the time.

Another 102 individuals whose whereabouts were initially unknown have since been located and "declared safe," she said.

A fire official said earlier that 35 people were evacuated from the portion of the high-rise left standing, and response teams using trained dogs and drones in the search pulled two individuals from the rubble. One of them was dead.

Officials said the complex, built in 1981, was undergoing roof construction and other repairs, with another building under construction on an adjacent site.

Additional reporting by Reuters