Video Captures Moment Parking Garage Collapsed in Lower Manhattan

The video of a New York City garage collapsing on Tuesday, which resulted in the death of at least one person, has gone viral on social media.

New York City Mayor Eric Adams confirmed during a press conference on April 18 that one person had been killed at the structure in lower Manhattan.

John Esposito, chief of fire operations for the New York City Fire Department (FDNY) said that at least five others had been injured after multiple floors of the garage collapsed and crushed cars inside.

The moment of collapse was captured on a car's Ring video system and has been viewed more than 165,000 times on Twitter.

The RAWSALERTS page on Twitter captioned the clip: "The incident was caught on footage from a vehicle parked inside the garage after there was reports of an explosion and collapse in a parking garage at Ann St and William St in Manhattan.

"Multiple people reportedly trapped, possibly feared dead. Some buildings near the collapse have been evacuated."

The clip shows the parking garage lit by lights before a booming crash causes the majority of lights to flicker off. Debris can then be seen flooding into the garage. Moments later, car alarms can be heard going off.

In an email sent to Newsweek before the mayor's press conference, FDNY said emergency workers arrived to perform the "major technical rescue" at around 4: 15 P.M. local time.

Other clips from the incident have gone viral on social media. One video shows the aftermath of the collapse. In a clip that has been viewed more than 880,000 times, the top floor of the garage is seen destroyed with many of the cars falling into the gap.

Esposito also highlighted the dangerous nature of the rescue efforts. During the press conference, he said: "We had firefighters inside the building conducting searches.

"The building was continuing to collapse. We made the decision to remove all our people from the building. Our robotics unit happened to be nearby; they were on scene very quickly. We deployed our robot dog into the building. They were able to give us video inside and then we were able to fly drones inside to conduct an assessment and conduct searches."

While authorities have not yet identified the cause of the floor collapse, early investigations have indicated the weight of the parked cars on the roof and the age of the garage may have played a role, according to a CBS News report.

At this stage, a private company is expected to tear down the building as the FDNY sifts through debris for possible remains.

Newsweek has contacted the New York City Fire Department through the contact form on its official website for comment.