Top Worst Building Collapses

The sudden, horrifying collapse of huge buildings has caused countless tragedies throughout the history of humanity, stressing the importance of safe construction.

The seemingly solid structures around the world have "cracked" and collapsed to the ground, sometimes in just a few seconds and hundreds of people were covered with debris. While tall buildings often distinguished for its impressive and innovative design, a human error, an accident or even a lack of appropriate safety measures led to really terrible disasters.

1. Twin Towers

Without doubt, the most catastrophic building collapse in history were the Twin Towers of New York. On 11th September, 2001, terrorist attacks occurred against targets in the United States. The Twin Towers collapsed shortly, causing thousands of deaths: besides the 19 hijackers, 2,973 people were killed and 24 remain missing.

2. Sampoong Department Store

On 29th June, 1995, the Sampoong department store in Seoul collapsed within 20 seconds, killing 502 people and injuring 937. That was the worst disaster in the history of South Korea. Responsibility was attributed entirely to the building owner Lee Joon. In April 1995 an extensive cracking was found. However, the owner not wanting to lose the profit of the day, he refused evacuation trapping 1,500 people inside.

3. Three High-Rise Office Buildings

On 26th January, 2012, a 20-storey building in Rio de Janeiro suddenly collapsed, falling on two other smaller buildings and killing at least 17 people.

4. Hotel New World

The six-storey "Hotel New World" collapsed in less than 60 seconds on 16th March 1986. The entire building, including a hotel, a bank and a night club, collapsed, burying 50 people and leaving behind the worst disaster ever experienced Singapore since WWII.

5. Lotus Riverside Compound

On 27th June, 2009, the Block 7, an 13-storey apartment building in Shanghai collapsed suddenly. Fortunately, most of the workers managed to evacuate the building and only one was beared. The area was unstable and the soil was eroded, due to the fact that there was an adjacent river to the building.