Forty-four people were listed as still missing today after a 24-storey building used by squatters in central Sao Paulo was engulfed in fire and collapsed, the Brazilian city's fire department said.
In the immediate aftermath of the disaster yesterday only three were unaccounted for, including one man who was seconds from being successfully rescued by firefighters before the building suddenly crashed down.
"The fire department is continuing to search, currently with 31 vehicles, 78 firefighters," the department tweeted. "44 missing."