Biden offers comfort as rescue suspended at collapsed building

AFP

US President Joe Biden hailed the "resilience" on Thursday of families of people killed or missing in a collapsed Florida beachfront apartment building, spending hours comforting grieving relatives as rescuers suspended their work for much of the day due to dangerous conditions.

Biden said there was still hope that some survivors could be found in the rubble, and while "the families are very realistic," the president said he believed after talking with them that the rescue and recovery operations should continue.

"What amazed me about this group of people was their resilience, their absolute commitment... to do whatever it takes to find an answer," he said.

"Our message today is that we're here for you, as one nation."

The search at the Surfside condominium building near Miami took a grim turn when authorities paused work amid fears the rest of the structure could also collapse.

Miami-Dade Fire Rescue Chief Alan Cominsky warned that there was "a large column hanging from the structure that could fall" and that movements in the ruins "could cause additional failure of the building."

The search resumed in the late afternoon after a review by structural engineers, Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava said.

The 18 confirmed dead so far include two children, aged 4 and 10, she said late on Wednesday. More than 140 others remain unaccounted for and hopes of finding any alive are evaporating.

Biden and first lady Jill Biden left the White House early for Surfside, saying they wanted to support first responders and comfort grieving relatives.

"What you're doing now is just hard as hell," Biden told emergency workers. "I just want to say thank you. Thank you, thank you, thank you."

The couple stopped at an improvised memorial wall one block from the mangled building, which rose above the fence covered with photos, homemade signs and flowers.

The Bidens walked slowly along it, and the first lady laid a bouquet of white irises on the curb. They stood for a moment as the president bowed his head, crossing himself before leaving the site.

'Low' chance of survival

The cave-in of the 12-story Champlain Towers South building has sparked a search-and-rescue effort involving engineers and specialists from across the United States and as far afield as Mexico and Israel.

Elad Edri, deputy commander of an Israeli search and rescue team, said rescuers had completed a map outlining bedrooms and other living spaces in the building where residents could be trapped.

Rescuers made it to an underground parking structure where it had been hoped they might discover people who had been trapped in cars, but found no one, Edri said.

"It's been more than six days from the collapsing," he cautioned, deeming the chances of finding any survivors "low."