One killed, 15 injured in downtown Toronto
Monday, December 8, 2003 Posted: 6:31 PM EST (2331 GMT)


TORONTO, Ontario (CNN) -- Firefighters rescued a student trapped for hours in the rubble of a Toronto theater that collapsed during demolition Monday, sending debris cascading through the roof of the school next door.

The collapse of the aging Uptown Theatre in downtown Toronto killed one person and injured 15, fire spokesman David Sheen said.

"We're 95 percent sure that everyone has been accounted for," Sheen said.

A language class was under way in the Yorkville English Language Academy classroom when the theater collapsed.

Toronto police Sgt. Jim Muscat said children were among those rescued.

Local television stations broadcast pictures of workers pulling a man from beneath debris, placing him on a gurney and then covering him with canvas before lowering him to the ground.

It was unclear if the man was alive. Muscat said injuries to the rescued victims don't appear to be life threatening.

It was not immediately known what caused the collapse.

"We're going through the rubble and the collapsed material -- obviously in the process of rescuing people who are there," Muscat said.

The Uptown Theatre opened in 1920 and was being demolished despite a community campaign to save it, according to a Web site dedicated to the building.