Six hurt as NY building collapses

About 30 firefighting units were sent to the scene

Six people were injured when a building collapsed in New York on Thursday, sending rubble crashing onto a pavement, officials said.

Scores of firefighters searched the debris trying to find anyone who might be trapped.

Witnesses saw several people, including a baby, pulled from the rubble and taken to hospital.

The building, a former supermarket, was in the process of being demolished when it collapsed unexpectedly.

The building on 100th Street and Broadway, in Manhattan's Upper West Side, was being pulled down to make way for a new skyscraper.

"There's always a possibility that people might be trapped, so it's a search and rescue mission," said fire department spokesman Charles Markey.

Rescuers swarmed over the mounds of masonry and fallen scaffolding with sniffer dogs hunting for signs of life.

'Heard rumble'

Later officials confirmed that five passers-by, including a baby, had been injured, as had a firefighter.

Some 25 construction workers at the site had been accounted for, they said.

"I had just walked under the scaffolding and I heard it start to rumble... and then just watched the whole thing collapse," eyewitness Jeff Rosenthal told local television, according to the AFP news agency.

Mr Rosenthal said he helped other pedestrians pull a woman and her baby from the rubble.

It was reported that two nearby underground stations in the area were closed during the emergency.