A dog walker managed to stumble across one of the survivors of the horrific 12-story condo collapse near Miami after seeing his tiny fingers and hearing his helpless screams.
At least 159 are missing and four have been confirmed dead after the residential building in Surfside, Florida, near Miami partially collapsed on Thursday (June 24), with a cause for the ordeal yet to be established.
One of the survivors to be pulled out from the debris was a young boy discovered after a chance encounter involving a dog walker who heard screaming.
Per CNN, Nicholas Balboa had been out walking his dog after midnight when he suddenly felt the ground shake.
Balboa recalled seeing dust and debris littered around as a huge part of the condo complex crumbled to the ground.
Watch the moment the teen was rescued from the rubble:Balboa was sure the collapse - substantial as it was - would have left no survivors. And as others headed to the front of the building, Balboa and another man decided to walk along the beach.
"It was eerie, like quiet, still," he told CNN. "It was almost out of a horror movie."
Balboa and the other man then heard a scream coming from under the rubble. The pair headed in the direction of the sound and saw little fingers wriggling from under the chunks of concrete and twisted metal.
"Finally, I got close enough to hear him, and he said, 'Can you see my hand?'" Balboa added. "He was sticking his hand up .... through the debris. And I could see his hand and his fingers wiggling."
Balboa used the light on his phone to alert the attention of police, who came over - with more rescuers arriving afterward.
The boy, who has now been identified as 15-year-old Jonah Handler, had been trapped under a mattress and bed frame.
The team of rescuers managed to pull him out and as of late Thursday, he was one of at least 37 survivors of the tragic collapse.
"He was obviously sleeping," Balboa told the outlet. "I can only imagine how many people were in their apartments either sleeping or watching TV or just whatever, just living their lives. Unbeknownst to them, the building was about to break away."
On Friday, it was reported that Jonah's mother, 54-year-old Stacie Fang, was one of the four people confirmed dead.
Rescue teams are continuing their search in the hope of finding other survivors of the condo crash.
