Missing in Rio high-rise collapse presumed dead

RIO DE JANEIRO: There is no hope of finding survivors from the three high-rise buildings that collapsed in central Rio, authorities said Friday, with the official toll at 15 dead and 12 missing.

Two days after the office buildings - of 20, 10, and four stories - crashed down near the municipal theater on the city's Cinelandia square, officials said 15 bodies had been recovered so far, 11 of them on Friday.

Many of the missing were believed to be in a classroom on the sixth floor of the 20-story Liberdade building where a computer firm was giving a training course when the structure collapsed.

A dense cloud of smoke still hung over the rubble from a fire that was still burning, beyond the reach of firefighters.

The search was expected to end by Saturday morning "to minimize the suffering of families," of the victims, said Colonel Ronaldo Alcantara of the city's fire department. (AFP)