One dead, 20 trapped after Azeri building collapses

BAKU, Aug 28 (Reuters) At least one person was killed and 20 others were trapped under rubble after a 14-storey building under construction in Azerbaijan's capital collapsed today.

''One body has been brought out from under the rubble and one injured person has been brought out,'' an emergencies spokesman said.

Azerbaijan's Lider television station said the Muttafakkir construction company, which was working on the building, had reported that 20 people were trapped under the rubble. It was not immediately clear if they were alive.

The cause of the collapse is not yet known.

Police and rescue services are searching for people who may be trapped under the debris of the building, which toppled over into a road. Television pictures showed a truck parked nearby that had been crushed by debris.

The capital of Azerbaijan, an oil-producing ex-Soviet republic, has been experiencing a construction boom with high-rise buildings springing up across the city on the shore of the Caspian Sea.

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