Body camera footage captures harrowing first moments when officers arrive on the scene of the deadly Surfside condo collapse as victims are heard crying out for help

Harrowing body camera footage released Tuesday shows the moment first responders arrived at the scene of the deadly partial collapse of a condo in Surfside, Florida.

Police officers are seen responding at around 1.24am on June 24, just moments after the rear portion of Champlain Towers South fell. 

Cries and wails for help can be heard through the dust as the officers try to assess the magnitude of the situation.  

In total, 98 bodies were pulled from the rubble, and 35 people were rescued in the opening hours after the collapse. They would be the only survivors. 

The cause of the disaster is still under investigation, and is being led by the National Institute of Standards and Technology.

It says its investigation could take years.

 Warning: Graphic content

Body camera footage released Tuesday from first responders at the scene of the deadly partial condo collapse in Surfside Florida, show the harrowing moments after the building fell, as officers discover the full magnitude of the devastation

The footage opens with an officer arriving at the aside of the building at around 1.24am, just moments after the rear portion of the building came down

Shining his flashlight through the dust, he comes across the collapsed portion of the condo's garage as cars can be seen falling into the lower level

 The officer hears residents crying out for help, and one informs him that an elderly woman had been injured

The footage opens with an officer shining his flashlight through the dust as he arrives on the scene at 1.24am - roughly around the minute the building came down. 

'I don't know what's going on I can't see,' he says.

He radios the dispatcher: 'There's a lot of dust I can barely see anything.'

He encounters some debris along the side of the building before moving towards its garage area, where the floor has collapsed and cars are falling into the chasms that have opened up. 

'Is anybody there?' he shouts. 'Is anybody there? Police.'

A woman calls out from below: 'Help, help Please help.'

The officer runs around to get a different view of the collapse, and see if he can find a way down to help the victims 

The cries for help continue as the officer and another continue down a neighboring breezeway

The two peer over the wall of a nearby breezeway to look down as the victims' wails can be heard below 

'Are you ok?' The officer responds.

'No,' she replies.

'I anyone down there injured?' the officer asks as he shines his flashlight on her.

'Yes, an old lady,' she says.

'What's wrong with her?' the officer asks, before telling the survivors. 'Give me a second. I'm going to go around.' 

About a minute later at 1.27pm the officer has reached a breezeway overlooking the collapsed garage.   

'People are screaming bro,' he says as the wails of the former residents of the tower can be heard below.  

Outside, at around 1.30am a bystander can be seen running up to the officers to tell them what happened. He can barely catch his breath

 He explains that he heard what sounded like a jet go by his balcony in a neighboring building, and informed them that the back portion of Champlain Towers South had fallen

'What happened?' another officer asks a security guard from a neighboring building.

'It looks like an explosion,' the guard replied.   

Footage from another officer at around 1.30am shows him looking over the edge of the breezeway as the cries for help continue from below. He calls his superior on his cell phone. 

'Captain,' he says with disbelief in his voice. 'The Champlain towers. The building. It collapsed. The Champlain towers building collapsed, the back part of the building collapsed.' 

'We don't know,' he continues on the phone. 'Somebody heard a loud noise and it just came down. Fire rescue's on their way. This is huge, I mean humongous.' 

By around 1.28am some of the responding officers had run back out to the streets outside, where parts of the building can be seen littering the road. 

At around 1.34am, the officers then seen beginning to coordinate with fire officials who had arrived on the scene, and begin evacuating nearby buildings and telling bystanders to keep their distance 

They speak to a panicked bystander, who is barely able to catch his breath and who says he lives in neighboring building.

'I'm on my phone and I hear like something fall,' the man recounts. 'And all of a sudden I hear like a f**king jet coming by my balcony.'

As he continues, another officer walks up with disbelief on his face to report to report. 'Half of the back is gone.'

By around 1.34am fire rescue begins to arrive and the officers begin coordinating to tell tell bystanders to stand back and evacuating neighboring buildings. 

'Do me a favor, right now, half the building collapsed,' one officer tells a man walking his dog.

'I know, I was in the building,' he replies.

'I need you to go that way, we don't know when the other half is gonna fall, where it's gonna fall,' the officer says.

Champlain Towers South, seen on the day the rear portion of the building collapsed. 98 bodies were pulled from the rubble, and 35 people were rescued. They would be the only survivors 

Footage from around 1.39am shows officers and firefighters evacuating residents from a neighboring condo. 

As they file out some yawn after being aroused from their sleep, and a man wearing nothing but a pair of shorts informs the officer that he needs to call his little brother who is still in a room upstairs.

Finally, a clip from around 1.44am shows a handful of officers standing across the street outside, staring in disbelief at the pile of rubble in front of them.  

'This is one of the craziest calls I’ve ever been on,' one of the officers comments.

'This is insane,' another officer says. 'I know man, I don’t even want to talk about it.'