A building in Sao Paulo crumbled to the ground on Tuesday, leaving at least six people dead.
According to authorities in Brazil who spoke with the Associated Press, 11 additional victims were found alive amid the rubble.
Further reports indicate that 20 live people were located.
An unknown number of people are still trapped underneath the two-story building. Around 60 firefighters worked with police canines throughout the day, sifting through the dust and broken chunks of concrete to try and find as many of the missing citizens as possible.
"Right now, the work is slow, very cautious, because to pull people from the rubble we need a lot of technique and patience," firefighter Marcos Palumbo told Globo TV, a local network in Brazil's largest city.
CNN reported that spokesperson for the city's security secretariat Celia Jacysyn said construction workers were rebuilding the commercial structure when it suddenly collapsed.
Jacysyn stated that the victims were workers renovating the building.
35 people were reconstructing the building when it fell. Eight people have still not yet been found.
Firefighters are not certain what exactly caused the building's collapse.
Last year, a 20-story building in Rio de Janeiro fell, taking down two more buildings along the way. Three people died as a result of that deadly collapse.
Sao Paulo is the center of commerce and finance in Brazil, CNN reported.
