SUKKUR, Dec 24 At least 12 people, including women and children, were feared dead after a recently-constructed six-storey residential building on the Hussaini Road collapsed on Wednesday night.

The fire brigade, ambulances, police and locals were trying desperately to save those trapped under the rubble.

According to Edhi sources, there were 20 apartments in the building, but only seven or eight of them were occupied.

They said that they had recovered six injured people from under the rubble, and sent them to different hospitals.

Heavy machinery was required to remove the rubble, the volunteers added.

They feared that the death toll might be higher.

According to civil hospital sources, the condition of some of the injured is serious. They were identified as Saima, 16, Kainaat, 3, Sadaqat Ali, 45, Akhlaq Ahmed, 40, Danish, 18, Ms Naghma, 35. The name of a three-year-old girl could not be ascertained.

Five bodies had been brought to various hospitals at the time of the filing of this report.

Sources said that the exact number of casualties would become known after cranes and other heavy equipment reached the scene.