Hunt for Turkey collapse victims

Rescuers search for people trapped under the rubble Enlarge Image

Rescuers at the site of a multi-storey building that collapsed in Istanbul are still checking that no one else is trapped beneath the rubble.

Earlier a man in his thirties was pulled out from the wreckage, injured but otherwise in good health.

Many residents had evacuated from the building after they heard cracking sounds, but it is not known how many people were inside when it collapsed.

TV footage showed men and women weeping amid the remnants of the building.

"We don't think there is anyone else left under the rubble but we are still trying to make sure, Can Avci, who led the rescue operation, told the Anatolia news agency.

The collapse occurred in the residential district of Sirinevler.

Poor construction

Istanbul governor Muammer Guler said most people had been evacuated from the building.

"Most of the people left the building when they heard cracking sounds, but a few people re-entered to get their things," Mr Guler told TV reporters.

Istanbul's mayor, Kadir Topbas, told the Associated Press news agency the building collapsed when workers were trying to demolish an adjacent building.

An eyewitness, 55-year-old Vesile Vural, described how she saw the building collapse from her apartment across the street.

"There were construction workers working on a new building next door, we were watching that," she said.

"Then the other building collapsed all of a sudden. In a second, everything was under a cloud of dust."

In February this year one woman died when a building collapsed in Istanbul.

Poor construction has been blamed for other building collapses in Turkey in the past.