Iran Press/ America: The death toll in the collapse of a Miami-area condominium tower rose to 79 on Friday after workers extracted 14 more bodies from the ruins and said they had reduced the pile of debris down nearly to ground level.
According to Reuters, the recovery left 61 people still missing and feared dead in the concrete and steel rubble of the 12-story oceanfront building in Surfside, Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava told an afternoon news conference.
The number of missing could change as it remains possible that not all were in the building when it abruptly crumbled to the ground in the early morning hours of June 24. Officials have yet to determine the cause of the disaster.
Crews working around the clock for 16 days have cut the size of the debris pile from four or five stories to nearly ground level, with some at below-ground level.
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