Fatal building collapse in Abuja

Eyewitnesses say 20 labourers were working on the building as it collapsed

At least three people have been killed and 10 injured when a four-storey shopping centre under construction collapsed in Nigeria's capital, Abuja.

Emergency workers are trying to rescue as many as 15 people believed to be buried beneath the rubble.

Rescuers were talking to a trapped labourer by mobile phone but he is no longer answering their calls, rescuers said on Wednesday.

The building site was due to become the capital's largest shopping centre.

"We were talking to a labourer by his mobile phone, but we have lost contact with him now, his phone rings and he doesn't answer," said Civil Defence Corps commander Ade Abolurin.

The workers who survived had thrown themselves from the top floor of the wooden scaffolding, he said.

One had suffered serious spinal injuries.

Falling debris

Eyewitness Mustapha Murtala told the BBC that there were about 20 labourers working on the building as it collapsed.

There were others hawking food and water in the building at the time.

Reuters news agency quoted police as saying the number of people was between 40 and 50.

"There was a woman selling water in the building, she started screaming and the building collapsed," Mr Murtala said.

He said she was killed by falling debris.

The BBC's Andrew Walker in Abuja says building collapses have been common in Nigeria.

Two years ago the government promised to improve building regulations after hundreds were killed when a high-rise building collapsed in Nigeria's main city of Lagos.