Three people died and one person was injured in the partial collapse of a 15-story building in Houston on Monday, officials said.
The Houston Fire Department said a rescue team was responding to the incident, which occurred Monday afternoon west of downtown Houston.
The fire department said the injured person was stable and had been taken to a local hospital.
Houston Public Works listed the site's address as 990 Town and Country Blvd. in the City Centre section. A public works spokeswoman said that a new construction permit for the office tower was issued in November and that regular inspections were previously scheduled for Monday.
The spokeswoman, Alanna Reed, said an inspector was headed to the site to confirm that a temporary staircase — and not the building itself — had collapsed.
MLN Co., the business that had the construction permit, is a subcontractor on the project, and its safety director, Kim Hutchinson, had no additional details.
A worker who was at the site told NBC affiliate KPRC that he heard a loud banging sound and then saw a "bunch of smoke."
Additional details about the victims or the cause of the collapse were not immediately available.