STOCKHOLM, March 26 (Xinhua) -- At least five people were fear dead after an apartment building collapsed Wednesday morning in Norway's west coastal city of Aalesund, according to news reaching Stockholm from the Norwegian capital Oslo.
The relatively new residential complex near the city's downtown collapsed just before 4 a.m. local time (0300 GMT) after the hillside behind it gave way. The first few floors of the building were crushed and residents were trapped under the rubble.
A witness was quoted by the Norwegian public broadcaster NRK assaying that the scene was "incomprehensible."
The witness, a close neighbor of the building, said it looked like the building has been shoved at least six meters and that its first floor and parts of the second floor were obliterated.
Some 21 people were believed to have been in the building, the police said.
Firefighters, police, ambulance crews, specially trained dogs as well as helicopters were sent immediately to the scene in Aalesund, about 350 km northwest of Oslo.
But rescuers were prevented from entering the collapsed building because it was unstable and fires were breaking out inside the debris.
According to NRK's report, police and rescue teams are trying to search the ruins for survivors, but a gas leak made the operation difficult and complicated.
Frantic residents in the building were plucked off their balconies from higher floors, both by neighbors using ladders and rescue crews using special lift vehicles.
A new landslide crashed into the rubble and the entire area was being evacuated.
Injured and badly shaken residents were rushed either to hospital or to a crisis center set up in a hotel of the downtown area. Around 15 were being treated for injuries, mostly minor ones.
It's feared, however, that others may have been crushed in their beds. At least five residents remained unaccounted for by 9 a.m. local time (0800 GMT).
The building containing residential condominiums was completed just a few years ago and residents moved in during 2004.
Source:Xinhua
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