Ten trapped alive under collapsed Azeri building

BAKU, Aug 29 (Reuters) Ten people are trapped alive under the rubble of a 14-storey building that collapsed killing at least seven in Azerbaijan's capital, emergency services said today.

''One of the people who are in the basement of the collapsed building made contact by mobile telephone and said that there were ten people alive in the basement,'' Baku city prosecutor Aziz Seidov told reporters.

Seidov said initial evidence pointed to shoddy building work as the cause of the collapse.

The building, which was under construction, collapsed across a road yesterday, with at least six injured people already pulled out alive from the site, said an emergency services spokesman.

The latest news of mobile phone contact came as police and rescue teams used heavy equipment to dismantle the wreckage in the search for more survivors.

Television pictures on Tuesday showed a truck parked nearby that had been crushed by a wall of debris after the building fell across a nearby road. A construction crane also toppled over.

Azerbaijan's President Ilham Aliyev was on his way to the scene early today.

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.

But local media have alleged that much of the construction is sub-standard and in violation of safety standards. They also say developers bypass building regulations by bribing corrupt officials.

Baku mayor Hajibala Abutalybov said the building that collapsed did not have permission and was built illegally.

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