RAWALPINDI, April 4: Three people were killed and 24 others injured when a five-storey commercial building collapsed in Satellite Town on Friday. The fate of many others trapped in the rubble is unknown, officials and witness said.

Labourers were working on the under-construction top floor of Bano Arcade in the evening when the building came down with a bang, residents of the locality said.

As bulldozers from the Pakistan Army’s Engineering Corps and sniffing dogs searched for the victims late in the night, officials feared the death toll would rise as an unknown number of people were still trapped in the rubble. The five-storey structure was reduced to a merely 10 feet high debris.

Residents said there were about 65 shops and a big departmental store in the building, which had a covered area of about 600 yards.

Rescuers and witnesses estimated the number of those trapped at more than 50.

Officials said the rescue operation was likely to continue well into the early hours of Saturday.

Electricity and gas supplies to the locality were suspended but were restored partially to parts of the area.

Witnesses said the owners were adding a fifth floor to their Bano Arcade to be used as a marriage hall. Some 40 labourers were laying the roof of the new floor when the building collapsed around 4pm.

One witness said he heard a loud bang as the building collapsed and later screams of trapped people crying for help. However, after a while those voices were inaudible.

The district administration ruled out sabotage as a cause of the incident. A senior official said the administration would like to investigate a possible use of poor construction material and a violation of the approved construction plan.