Emergency personnel work at the scene of a partial building collapse where, according to local reports, people are trapped in the Brooklyn borough of New York, on Wednesday, November 11. - Angelina Katsanis/Reuters

Leonor Yupa dropped to her knees Thursday when a Spanish-language media reporter said her 22-year-old son was among eight people whose lives were claimed by the Brooklyn building collapse the day before.

“I want my son! I want my son!” the Ecuadorian mother cried in Spanish as family members tried to hold Yupa up and others who gathered at Bethesda Church of God in Chr...