Multi-story building collapses on Fulton Street in Bedford Stuyvesant section of Brooklyn; 3 people injured

BEDFORD-STUYVESANT (WABC) -- A multi-story building collapsed in Brooklyn Tuesday afternoon, injuring three people.

The incident happened at around 2:30 p.m. at 1438 Fulton Street in the Bedford-Stuyvesant section of Brooklyn.

Eyewitness News Reporter Stacey Sager recorded this video at the scene:

(News app users: Click here to watch)

Here is video posted by Instagram user @beautii_bella:

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Here are some photos posted to Twitter:

Bit by bit, chunk by chunk, work crews gingerly knocked down whatever still stood at the corner of Fulton and Tompkins Tuesday night, after the sudden and terrifying collapse in the afternoon.

"All you heard was a big loud kaboom!" a resident said. "And when I heard it, I was like what's that?"

"I saw all the haze in the air and then I heard people say, 'Oh my God, oh my God, a building collapsed,'" a resident said.

Pedestrians ran for their lives as the unoccupied four-story brownstone pancaked in on itself and landed on the sidewalk below.

Paramedics treated three victims, one of them a bicyclist, just passing by when firefighters say with no warning and no apparent cause, the old building came crashing down.

According to property records, a developer bought the 1910 tenement last February for $11 million.

Destined for condos, it was already vacant. Workers were preparing it for demolition when it fell to the ground Tuesday.

Building's inspectors are trying to find out why it collapsed. But with the neighborhood in the throes of radical change, longtime residents say the collapse points to an even bigger problem in their midst.

"It's like this community is all our family and outsiders are coming in and just taking over and destroying our neighborhood," a resident said.