Israeli rescue team arrives at collapsed Florida building; 156 still missing

SURFSIDE, Florida — A team of Israeli engineers and rescue specialists reach the site of a Florida apartment building that partially collapsed three days ago, killing at least five people with 156 still missing.

Many members of the local Jewish community were among those affected by the tragedy in Surfside, near Miami Beach, and Israel had vowed to help with the agonizing search through the smoking mountain of debris.

The 12-story oceanfront Champlain Towers South pancaked in the middle of the night Thursday as residents slept. Surveillance video of the collapse showed it coming down in just a few seconds.

The rescue operation has been agonizingly slow and painstaking, and fears of a much higher death toll are climbing with each passing hour — though rescuers have stressed that there may yet be survivors trapped inside the rubble.

“This is one of the best, if not the best, and the most experienced rescue teams, Israeli rescue teams,” Diaspora Affairs Minister Nachman Shai says as the team arrives in Surfside.

“They’ve been all over the world in many similar situations.”

The Israeli specialists will join rescuers armed with heavy machinery and sniffer dogs who have been working around the clock since the building came down.

#HAPPENINGNOW: Search-and-rescue team from Israel arrives at Surfside building collapse site pic.twitter.com/cnFrHFCtVs

— Linnie Supall (@LinnieSupall) June 27, 2021