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Miami building collapse death toll rises to 46

Search and rescue teams at work last night at Surfside, Florida
Search and rescue teams at work last night at Surfside, Florida

The death toll from the collapse of an apartment building in Florida has risen to 46 after 10 more bodies were recovered from the rubble outside Miami.

Officials also said the number of people unaccounted for now stands at 94.

Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava said emergency personnel had been able to reach new areas in the debris as a result of the demolition of Champlain Towers South in a controlled explosion over the weekend.

She told reporters that those efforts had brought "the total confirmed deaths to 46. Thirty-two of these victims have been identified and next of kin notifications have been made."

"At this time, 200 people are now accounted for and 94 people are still unaccounted for," Ms Levine Cava said.

The building in Surfside collapsed in the early hours of 24 June.

Investigations are under way to determine the cause of the collapse.

Ms Levine Cava said rescuers were lucky as the weather had cleared, with Tropical Storm Elsa making landfall on the state's west coast.

Forecasters said that Surfside would likely be spared the worst of the storm.

The mayor announced the updated death toll hours after several hundred mourners gathered in a Miami Beach church at the first funeral for victims of the collapse.

Marcus Guara, 52, his 42-year-old wife Ana Guara, and their daughters, Lucia, 10, and Emma, 4, were remembered as a tight-knit family who loved taking walks on the beach and spending time together.

"Who would have thought a few weeks ago that our community had so many ties to one little building in one small corner of Florida called Surfside," Marcus Guara's cousin Peter Miliánsaid in a eulogy for the family.

Though local officials say they have not given up hope of finding survivors, no one has been discovered alive in the rubble since the first few hours after the tower collapsed.

Miami-Dade County Fire Chief Alan Cominsky said rescuers have not found any "liveable spaces" where survivors could have been spared.