Search continues for dozens trapped in deadly India building collapse

At least 14 bodies were pulled from the wreckage of a building under construction that collapsed Saturday in a coastal village in the Indian tourist state of Goa.

The residential building caved in around mid-afternoon, when some 50 daily wage laborers were working on the site, police said. A witness said the building collapsed like "a pack of cards."

Fire and emergency service crews rushed to the spot and began using cranes and bulldozers, shovels and bare hands, to shift concrete slabs and other debris to free the trapped laborers.

Hundreds of onlookers stood watching as police sought to shoo them away from the site, saying they were hampering access for machinery.

"The current priority is to rescue people trapped under the rubble, and the government has also taken help of the army to clear the debris,"  Goa Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar told the Press Trust of India.

The building collapse, the latest in a string of deadly construction cave-ins in India recently, occurred in the seaside village of Canacona, south of the capital city of Panaji.

Police and residents pulled several bodies from the wreckage, while firefighters and rescue workers sifted through the debris for survivors. At least 22 people have been rescued. Ambulances took at least three seriously injured workers to a hospital for treatment.

Initial reports said that the structure was five-story apartment residence.

"We will immediately arrest the builder, the contractor and municipal officials involved in sanctioning this construction site," Parrikar said "I am personally monitoring the situation."

He said that police had already filed complaints against those people involved in the construction of the building.

In September, a rundown five-story residential block in India's financial hub Mumbai collapsed, killing 60 people. The building had been listed by municipal authorities as needing "urgent repairs," according to local media reports. And in April, a building collapse in Mumbai killed 74 people.

The incidents have highlighted shoddy construction and violations of the building code amid burgeoning demand for housing in many parts of India.

Real estate experts say that many buildings collapse because construction codes are not followed and there is no attention to building safety.

Wire services