Part of a vacant building collapsed in lower Manhattan Thursday, leaving rubble but causing no injuries. Emergency crews with a dog were searching the site and a neighboring building as a precaution. Natural gas was shut off in the area. The front half of the building fell to the ground, and interior floors of the five-storey building were visible from the street. Mounds of rubble were on the street, covering a car City building inspectors were at the site, about seven blocks north of the World Trade Center ruins, and said the cause of the partial collapse was not immediately known. Work had recently been done to stabilize the building, which is next to a construction site, city officials said.
