Chandan Khanna / AFP / Getty Images
- A Florida mayor says the condo building that collapsed early Thursday "literally pancaked."
- Surfside mayor Charles Burkett said he doesn't believe many survivors will be rescued alive.
- At least 1 person has been reported dead in the collapse.
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The high-rise condo building that partially collapsed in Florida early Thursday leaving at least one person dead "literally pancaked," the town's mayor said.
"The problem is the building has literally pancaked," Surfside, Florida, mayor Charles Burkett said of the 12-story oceanfront Champlain Towers South Condo in Surfside near Miami Beach.
"There's just feet in between stories where there were 10 feet," Burkett told reporters. "That is heartbreaking because it doesn't mean to me that we're going to be successful, as successful as we want to be to find people alive."
A wing of the roughly 130-unit condo building collapsed at around 1 a.m. About half of the building's apartments collapsed, authorities said.
Burkett said 10 people were treated for injuries on the scene immediately after the collapse, two were taken to the hospital and one person died.