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Person inside Texas hotel that was imploded?

Police searched the rubble of a demolished hotel in Houston Friday for any sign that someone may have been in the building when it was imploded.
/ Source: The Associated Press

Police searched the rubble of a demolished hotel in Houston Friday for any sign that someone may have been in the building when it was imploded.

An amateur video appeared to show a figure inside the 13-story Crowne Plaza Hotel seconds before the implosion southwest of downtown Houston, police said.

"It seems to show movement just prior to the implosion," spokesman Sgt. Nate McDuell said Thursday. "But that hasn't been confirmed to be human."

Workers in the adjacent Texas Medical Center also reported seeing someone enter the building just before the detonation.

Investigators asked the demolition company to stop work and began searching the site Tuesday after receiving the video. Officials with Cherry Demolition, who said all their workers were accounted for, told police they searched the building twice before the implosion.

The Harris County medical examiner, homicide detectives, crime scene investigators and crews with cadaver dogs searched the wreckage Wednesday and Thursday. Houston police spokesman Victor Senties said the search resumed Friday morning.

The hotel was imploded as part of a planned demolition project.