NY building collapses after apparent suicide bid

NEW YORK, July 10 (Reuters) A four-story building today collapsed in Manhattan and injured 15 people after an apparent gas explosion that may have resulted from a failed suicide attempt.

Witnesses reported a deafening explosion before building came crashing down, shattering windows across the street. Smoke billowed from the debris throughout a frantic rescue operation and continued to emerge for hours after the morning blast.

Ten firefighters and five civilians were injured.

''I saw the building go up in such flames and called to my wife to go running,'' said Yaakov Kermaier, a rabbi who lives next door.

''I ran into the building (next door) to get my baby.'' The gas leak may have been the result of a suicide attempt by the building's owner, New York Fire Commissioner Nicholas Scoppetta told reporters on the scene.

The man was taken from the rubble on a stretcher and hospitalized with severe burns. Neighbors had reported a strong smell of gas before the explosion, the gas utility company said.

Scoppetta referred to an e-mail send by the man but provided no details. Local media said the e-mail indicated he was contemplating suicide. Police and fire officials said they were investigating.

''I saw a lot of smoke, people scurrying everywhere,'' CNN talk show host Larry King, who happened to be on the scene, told reporters. ''There was one huge boom. ... It sounded like a bombing would sound, like the bombing of London in World War Two.'' The apartment building on 62nd Street on the Upper East Side of Manhattan housed some doctors' offices, but police said the building collapsed before any patients were due for their morning appointments.

The Upper East Side is one of New York's most upscale neighborhoods with many luxury apartment buildings near Central Park.

REUTERS SY BST2336