Scramble to find missing workers after US hotel collapses

This is the terrifying moment the building toppled over.
This is the terrifying moment the building toppled over. Photo credit: WWL-TV / Twitter

Emergency services are scrambling to rescue two workers trapped in the wreckage of a collapsed US hotel.

The upper floors of the Hard Rock Hotel, which was under construction in New Orleans, collapsed on Saturday (local time), killing one worker and injuring more than a dozen others.

Rescue and search teams are trying to find the missing workers using dogs.

"We believe we know where they are but we have no visibility," Tim McConnell, New Orleans Fire Department Superintendent, told reporters. "We assume they are alive."

Video of the collapse shows the floors falling on top of each other before the side of the building topples over.

"It looked like sheetrock," witness Fallon Leigh O'Brien told NBC News. "A few pieces first, and then the whole building started to fall. All of a sudden the entire intersection was engulfed in dust and debris, and people were coughing."

Authorities warn the site remains unstable and there are fears that more of the building and construction equipment could collapse.

"This remains a very fluid and very dangerous situation, and every few minutes something is falling off of this building," Louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards said at a news conference on Saturday morning.

Newshub.