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Toronto wall collapse: police say too early to tell if person trapped in rubble

A police dog and thermal imaging equipment are being used at the scene of a wall collapse in downtown Toronto but it’s unclear if anyone is trapped under the rubble.

TORONTO — A police dog and thermal imaging equipment are being used at the scene of a wall collapse in downtown Toronto but it’s unclear if anyone is trapped under the rubble.

Police say everyone inside the sushi restaurant at Yonge and Gould streets made it out safely when the outside wall collapsed.

Still, police could not rule out the possibility that someone was under the extensive debris on the sidewalk on Gould Street, next to Ryerson University.

Police say they are checking on witness reports that one person may have been on the sidewalk when the wall collapsed.

The collapse sent bricks crashing to the street from the second storey facade of the building during the lunch hour.

Emergency crews are at the scene, but did not immediately wade into the rubble — which covers a roughly 10 metre stretch — as the wall is considered unstable.

A man who was dining in the restaurant said while the room filled with dust, everyone inside escaped unharmed.

“Basically we just walked out one at a time checking to make sure there was nothing else going to fall,” Chris Sidey told TV station CP24.

“We were all able to get out, no one was injured.”

One man who works at a pizza store across the road said the collapse created a “very big noise” and “lots of dust.”

The man says he saw a woman walking on the far side of the street who was “flipped over” by the impact but was unhurt.

He says he believed a sign had been installed on the facade and began leaning toward the street. The approximately 10 by eight metre section of the wall then collapsed.

Sidey said two women standing outside apparently managed to duck to safety when the bricks fell.