Story highlights
NEW: Officials believed that all children have been accounted for
3 children, 1 adult have serious but non-life-threatening injuries, official says
Police: Rear-ended vehicle smashed into daycare center in Kansas City, Missouri
An SUV slammed into a Cadillac, sending it through the front wall of a Kansas City day care center Tuesday, seriously injuring three children in the building, officials in the western Missouri city said.
The three children and an adult – identified by police as the driver of the SUV – were taken to hospitals with serious but non-life-threatening injuries, city communications director Danny Rotert said.
The crash left a gaping hole in the front of Christian Academy Child Care, where about 40 children were when the Cadillac punched through around 1 p.m. (2 p.m. CT), Kansas City police Capt. Tye Grant said.
The driver of the Cadillac, which for a time trapped two children in the building, ran from the scene, Grant said.
However, James Garrett, with the Kansas City Fire Department, later said that the Cadillac was unoccupied. It was parked, he said.
The incident started, police say, with the SUV rear-ending the car outside the child care center on 27th Street in central Kansas City. The Cadillac was propelled into the gray one-story building, coming to rest inside, Grant said.
Aerial video from CNN affiliate KMBC showed the SUV, its front crumpled, just outside the front of the building, along with a huge hole and debris scattered on the sidewalk.
Workers on Tuesday afternoon were trying to shore up the front of the building to ensure it wouldn’t collapse, Rotert said. They then planned to take the Cadillac out of the facility.
Officials believed that all children have been accounted for, “but we are still searching,” Grant said Tuesday afternoon.
CNN’s Janet DiGiacomo and Carma Hassan contributed to this report.