NY workers die as building collapses

New York - Rescue crews had to be called from the World Trade Centre disaster site when a 20-storey Manhattan office building…

New York - Rescue crews had to be called from the World Trade Centre disaster site when a 20-storey Manhattan office building collapsed on Wednesday, leaving six construction workers dead.

Eleven others were injured, New York City officials said.

Rescue workers worked late into the night to clear debris from the 20ft pile of rubble. Crews were called from Ground Zero, about two miles south, said Fire Commissioner Thomas Von Essen, who was at the scene with New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani.

As some 250 rescue workers hunted for victims, they stopped periodically to listen for tapping signals from survivors. They eventually removed all the trapped victims. The construction crew was replacing bricks and working on windows when the facade and adjoining scaffolding tumbled into the courtyard of the building. Most of the injured or dead were said to be immigrants from Mexico and Ecuador. It is understood there were no Irish among them.