
At least one person is dead and 18 more are injured after a large portion of the Hard Rock Cafe in New Orleans came crashing down on Saturday morning.

Video shows the moment that the top floors of the building - which has been under construction for the last several months - collapsed onto Basin Street at around 9am.

At least one person has been reported dead from the accident, a fire chief at the scene told BNO News.

Video shows the moment that the top floors of the Hard Rock Cafe came crashing down onto Basin Street at around 9am in New Orleans that left one dead

The building mostly fell on Basin Street, located just outside of the French Quarter

It is not exactly known how the building partially collapsed but Nola.com reports that 18 people have been taken to the hospital in unknown condition. Three others are said to be missing.

Video shows the upper floors come toppling down as two large cranes are seen swaying in the aftermath.

During a Saturday press conference, New Orleans Fire Department Superintendent Tim McConnell said the upper six to eight floors of the building collapsed. He added that the building remains unstable and may collapse completely.

'The building is unstable, so a collapse is still possible,' McConnell, according to Nola.com.

Witnesses recalled that the cranes were 'sort of dangling there' as employees struggled to stay alive.

It is not exactly known how the building collapsed

18 people have been taken to the hospital in unknown condition after suffering injuries in the collapse

The development was expected to be open in the spring. Debris can be seen falling off the building

Construction workers were said to have had to climb down ladders in order to get to safety

Construction workers can be seen pulling their coworkers out of the wreckage

'I saw two guys on about the 10th story just hanging on,' said Keith Director, who had been driving by the building when he heard a loud 'bang.'

Construction workers had to use ladders to get down to safety, WWLTV reports.

An employee said there were roughly 45 workers inside the building at the time.

'I was on the 18th floor when it happened,' he said. 'We ran to the center of the building to escape.'

The Hard Rock Hotel was expected to open in the spring and was to be an 18-story building with 350 rooms. It was also going to have 62 condominiums.

Plans for the mixed use development project were first unveiled in February 2018.

Three people are said to be missing from the scene

A rescued construction worker makes his way down a ladder

Construction workers film the wreckage left behind after the building collapsed

Construction workers are helped by emergency personnel