Miami condo death toll rises to four with ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY NINE missing as its revealed experts knew the 12-story building was sinking last YEAR and rescuers deploy heavy lifting machinery

Three more bodies have been pulled from the rubble of the collapsed 12-story Miami condo tower pushing the death toll up to four while officials revealed 159 people are still missing.

Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava confirmed Friday morning that rescue teams had recovered the bodies of three more victims from the rubble of the Champlain Towers South overnight. Their identities are not yet known and officials did not confirm their ages, genders or ethnicities.  

This comes after one woman was confirmed dead Thursday when she was pulled from the rubble and rushed to hospital. 

Desperate family members gathered at the nearby reunification center were frantically awaiting results of DNA swabs that could help identify victims. 

Cava said it had been a 'tragic night' but she remained 'very hopeful' that more survivors will be found and insisted it was still a rescue - rather than a recovery - mission at this time. 'We still have hope that we will find people alive,' she said.

Rescue teams worked through the night Thursday using dogs, sonar and heavy machinery to search for signs of life as they battled with fires reigniting in the rubble.

Officials said Friday sounds had been heard coming from areas, fueling hope more people will be found alive as the number of people unaccounted for climbed to 159.

The mayor said a total of 120 people have now been accounted for 'which is very, very good news' but warned that the number of missing was 'very fluid.'  

Officials had initially said 99 people unaccounted for following the building's collapse around 1:30am Thursday morning. 

But, with the tower housing a mix of seasonal and year-round residents, authorities were unsure exactly how many people were inside when it collapsed.  

Officials said Thursday they believed the building was 'substantially full' at the time and pleaded to the public for information about anyone who may have been inside. 

Among the missing are the former president of Chile's first cousin, the president of Paraguay's sister-in-law and her family and a celebrity plastic surgeon.   

Now, more than 24 hours on from the collapse, at least 37 people have so far been rescued from the rubble or parts of the damaged building still standing, with 11 injured and four hospitalized.  

With the search entering its second full day Friday, Joe Biden declared a state of emergency in Florida and federal assistance was drafted in to Miami while questions mounted over the cause of the tragedy and whether it could have been avoided.

It emerged Thursday that scientists had warned that the 1980s condo building was sinking and in a potentially dangerous condition one year before it collapsed, while it was due a safety certification review for the first time in 40 years. It had also just undergone improvements to its roof. 

Miami Beach State Senator Jason Pizzo told the Miami Herald he had seen one body removed from the collapse site in a yellow body bag and another that was marked. 

Miami-Dade Fire Rescue Chief Ray Jadallah said Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) teams had arrived on the scene overnight following the president's emergency declaration and were assisting the 130 firefighters already on the ground. 

Jadallah said a fire reignited in the building overnight but 'it did not slow down our search and rescue operation.' 

Sounds were heard coming from the rubble, he said, but rescue teams were unable to determine if the sounds were voices of survivors or not.

'We are listening for sounds, it's not specifically, you know human sounds, it could be...not necessarily tapping, it could be steel...it could be some of the debris kind of raining down,' said Jadallah. 

'We have hope, and every time that we hear a sound, we concentrate on that area... as we continue to hear those sounds, we concentrate on those areas.'  

The focus of the search has now all turned to combing through the rubble after the parts of the building still standing were fully cleared, he added.