MUMBAI: A five-storey residential building collapsed in Mumbai at daybreak on Friday in the latest accident in India's financial capital.

Rescue workers scrambled to find survivors amid the debris of the flattened block, owned by the city's civic administrative body, the Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai, in the east of the city.

“My son is inside. I'm waiting for them to get him out,” distraught 62-year-old retiree Mithi Solakani cried as rescue workers scrambled over tonnes of debris.

“My heart is thumping with fear. I'm just hoping,” said tearful housewife Shanta Makwana, whose daughter and grandchildren were trapped inside the building in which she also used to live.

Several diggers were pressed into action to lift some of the larger slabs of concrete, allowing teams of rescuers to begin the grim task of taking out bodies.

One woman was removed covered in dark red cloth and carried to a waiting ambulance on a stretcher. Crowds of women waiting nearby could be heard sobbing.

“Figures show five deaths and 27 injured up to 2pm,” Vijay Khabale-Patil, the corporation's spokesman, told AFP. The injured have been taken to nearby hospitals.

Local people estimated between 40-60 people lived in the destroyed block, while the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) said preliminary information indicated 22 families were housed there.

Local commander Alok Avasthy from the NDMA's response force had initially stated that up to 70 people were feared trapped.

Local city administrator Manisha Mahiskar had earlier put the number of missing much lower, at around 20. Seven people had been pulled out alive, she said.

Five other apartment blocks have collapsed in or close to Mumbai in recent months, including one in April that killed 74 people.

They have highlighted poor quality construction and violations of the building code, caused by massive demand for housing and endemic corruption.