NEW YORK — City officials said Thursday that eight people were dead and 17 were injured after a three-story building in Brooklyn's Flatbush neighborhood collapsed into an adjacent excavation pit on Wednesday afternoon^1,3.

The FDNY said six people were found dead at the scene and two died at a hospital¹. Firefighters continued searching overnight under floodlights with drones and K-9 units, CBS News reported, while ABC7 New York said crews also used vacuum trucks and hand tools^1,2.

The collapse occurred just after 4 p.m. Wednesday, when a mixed-use building at 1321 Flatbush Avenue fell into an open construction site at 2625 Bedford Avenue, the FDNY said². Workers were excavating at the pit when the structure came down². Part of a neighboring building at 1323 Flatbush Avenue was sheared open but remained standing, ABC7 New York reported².

Mayor Zohran Mamdani said rescue crews had worked overnight "under extremely dangerous conditions" and that three firefighters were among the injured³. FDNY Commissioner Lillian Bonsignore said people from the building and the construction site had been trapped^3,4.

Bonsignore said the victims include seven children, without specifying whether they were among the dead or the injured^2,3. Officials said they did not know how many people were inside when the building fell².

The Department of Buildings said developers at the neighboring site had an active permit for excavation and foundation work, and a full stop-work order has been issued^1,2. The cause remained under investigation^1,4.

Emergency Management opened a reception center with the Red Cross at the Flatbush YMCA, where the Red Cross said it registered 11 adults and two children from six households². The NYPD asked the public to avoid Bedford and Flatbush Avenues². Earlier BBC and Al Jazeera accounts, filed before Thursday's official count, reported lower death tolls^4,5.