A Toronto theater being demolished partly collapsed Monday onto a school next door, killing one man and injuring 14 people.

Firefighters sift through rubble after a wall from a downtown theatre collapsed onto an adjacent building in Toronto on Monday. [CP]

Workers had been tearing down the historic Uptown Theater when it crumbled at 10:30 a.m. One of its walls fell on the roof of the Yorkville English Academy, where classes were under way. The school teaches English as a second language.

"It just collapsed. The wall beside us fell in on top of our building," said teacher John Harrington, who had been instructing about a dozen students at the time in the three-story structure.

A man was pronounced dead at the scene and 14 other people were taken to hospitals, including two children with crushed legs, said Bruce Farr, director of Toronto Emergency Medical Services. Most of the injuries were not life-threatening, he said.

Authorities called off the rescue effort at 6 p.m., saying that they did not expect to find anyone else, alive or dead, in the rubble.

"We're finally satisfied that everyone in that school has been accounted for," Police Chief Julian Fantino told reporters.

Toronto Fire Chief Bill Stewart allayed fears that any further collapses would occur, in the theater or neighboring buildings.

Earlier, as workers combed the site in freezing weather, officials said they thought at least one person had been trapped in the rubble. But sniffer dogs and diggers uncovered no more victims.

Simone Serra, a student who arrived in Canada two weeks ago from Brazil, clutched her daughter Stephanie, 11, who was wrapped in a blanket in the freezing temperature after both escaped the collapse.

"I'm afraid because there are some people there that I know. I want news about them," Serra said.

Firefighter Alan Wingfield arrived amidst gas fumes to help pull out a boy with a broken leg. He had been pinned for 45 minutes by a collapsed roof truss in a dark corner of the school.

"He wasn't that awake, but had a pretty relieved look on his face," Wingfield said.

Five of the injured taken to hospitals were employees of the demolition firm, officials said.

The mother of an injured student who was taken to a hospital said she was contacted by cell phone from inside the collapsed school by her daughter.

"I told her to hide under a desk to protect her head and get something to tie off the wound of a classmate," Helen Wanger said.

Authorities invoked a no fly zone over site, saying it was needed to aid sensitive acoustical equipment used in the search.

Fantino said the site's bustling location near the tony midtown intersection of Bloor and Yonge streets made it difficult to determine exactly how many people may have been caught in the collapse.

Hundreds of people in surrounding buildings overlooking the site braved the freezing temperatures to watch the rescue effort from their balconies.

The Uptown Theater, which opened in 1920 as a movie theater and a stage venue, is considered a historic site and was the subject of an unsuccessful campaign to stop its demolition. It was a former venue for the Toronto International Film Festival.

In May, the company Famous Players sold the building for US$7.5 million to Piagga Ltd., a developer with plans to build a 50-story apartment building on the site.

Toronto city councilor Kyle Rae, who represents the ward where the theater is located, told reporters he received a telephone call Sunday from a Piagga employee expressing "concerns over safety problems." Rae did not elaborate.

The Uptown was one of three theaters that Famous Players decided to shut down rather than follow government directives to make them wheelchair accessible.

Piagga did not immediately return calls seeking comment.

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