Another fatality was found after the partial collapse of a twelve-story apartment building in the US state of Florida.

The rescue workers discovered a lifeless body in the rubble on Saturday, said the mayor of the Miami-Dade district, Daniella Levine Cava, in the evening (local time) at the accident site in Surfside near Miami.

The number of dead has risen to five.

The search forces had also found other as yet unidentified "human remains," said Levine Cava, without being specific.

Identification is not easy, she stressed.

DNA tests would be used here.

DNA samples were collected from relatives for this purpose.

More than 150 people are still missing.

The number is currently 156, said Levine Cava.

The authorities had previously emphasized that the missing people did not necessarily all have to have been in the building.

It is a list of people who could potentially have been in the house at the time of the accident.

Many families fear for their loved ones.

Police released the names of four of the five fatalities found on Thursday and Friday over the weekend: a 54-year-old woman, a 54-year-old man and an elderly couple aged 79 and 83.

More than 35 people could be saved

The building near the beach with around 130 residential units had partially collapsed on Thursday night.

The misfortune surprised people in their sleep.

Since then, a desperate search for survivors has been going on.

It's a race against time.

Rescue teams are on duty around the clock, with sniffer dogs, special cameras, listening instruments and heavy equipment.

In the meantime, a fire in the rubble had significantly hampered the search.

According to Levine Cava, the rescue workers initially had difficulties locating the origin of the fire under the rubble, isolating it and extinguishing it.

This made the search for possible buried subjects very difficult.

Levine Cava told CNN on Sunday morning (local time) that the fire and smoke were now under control.

Several people were injured in the accident at Surfside.

More than 35 people have been rescued so far.

Why did the building collapse?

The cause of the partial collapse remains a mystery.

The residential complex known as Champlain Towers South dates from the 1980s.

At the weekend, a 2018 inspection report by an outside company became public, in which experts listed several defects, including major structural defects in the building's concrete.

Whether these could be in any way related to the collapse remained open.

Levine Cava stressed on Saturday that she was previously unaware of the report.

The authorities followed up on all clues and the cause of the accident to the bottom, so that something like this never happens again, she promised.

In the meantime, it will also check whether other similarly old buildings are safe.

In order to release additional funds and material after the accident, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis had declared a state of emergency. This was confirmed by President Joe Biden on Friday so that federal funds could also be made available. The disaster control agency FEMA is also involved. International helpers are also involved. Israel sent a delegation to help with the recovery, a spokeswoman for the Israeli Foreign Ministry confirmed on Sunday. The team had left the evening before.