New York City races to secure unstable skyscraper after columns buckle and floors sag

Workers have started making emergency repairs to stabilise a Manhattan high-rise after buckled columns and sagging floors forced evacuations in and around the midtown construction site.

The scene unfolded throughout Tuesday after the precarious conditions were spotted in the morning at the 1970s-era building, which is being converted into luxury flats. Construction workers at the site and people in nearby buildings – including a school, diplomatic offices and several hotels – in the busy corridor of midtown were rushed out after firefighters were called there around 8am.

By early afternoon, Mayor Zohran Mamdani said the building remained unstable and called it “an extremely serious situation”.

City officials going floor-by-floor later found no additional movement of the damaged columns, giving on-site contractors the greenlight to move forward with emergency repairs, his office said. By Tuesday evening, workers could be seen shoring up the damage inside the gleaming glass-and-steel high-rise.

The temporary measures are meant to stabilise the building and are expected to stretch into the coming days, impacting a part of Manhattan near the famed Grand Central railway station that is a hub for metro area commuters and residents as well as tourists.

Fire and building officials, meanwhile, said they were going building-by-building in the surrounding area to determine whether street closures or evacuation orders could be lifted. By late Tuesday, some area residents were told it was safe to return, according to Mamdani’s office.