New York building collapses after apparent suicide bid [video report]

Firefighters work through the debris of the collapsed building in New York today. Picture / Reuters

A four-story building collapsed in Manhattan today and injured 15 people after an apparent gas explosion that may have resulted from a failed suicide attempt.

Witnesses reported a deafening explosion before the building came crashing down, shattering windows across the street. Smoke billowed from the debris throughout a frantic rescue operation and continued to emerge for hours after the morning blast.

Ten firefighters and five civilians were injured.

"I saw the building go up in such flames and called to my wife to go running," said Yaakov Kermaier, a rabbi who lives next door. "I ran into the building (next door) to get my baby."

Neighbors had reported a strong smell of gas before the explosion, the gas utility company said.

The gas leak may have been the result of a suicide attempt by the building's owner, New York Fire Commissioner Nicholas Scoppetta told reporters on the scene.

The owner was rescued from the rubble and hospitalized with severe burns. A police source, speaking on condition of anonymity, later said the doctor had "taken a turn for the worse. He has severe lung damage." If the man survives, he could face criminal charges, the source said.

The building owner recently wrote a rambling, 15-page email to his estranged wife in which he seemed suicidal and indicated he did not want her to have the multimillion-dollar building, the police source said.

The apartment building on 62nd Street on the Upper East Side of Manhattan housed some doctors' offices, but police said the building collapsed before any patients were due for their morning appointments.

"I saw a lot of smoke, people scurrying everywhere," CNN talk show host Larry King, who happened to be on the scene, told reporters. "There was one huge boom. ... It sounded like a bombing would sound, like the bombing of London in World War Two."

The Upper East Side is one of New York's most upscale neighborhoods with many luxury apartment buildings near Central Park.

- REUTERS