Naples building crumbles - eight missing Published duration 7 July 2017

image copyright EPA image caption The collapse happened in a district near Pompeii and Mt Vesuvius

Rescuers in southern Italy are trying to find eight people missing after an apartment block collapsed in Naples.

Italian media say two families were living in the four-storey building that collapsed in Torre Annunziata district. Two children are among those missing.

The cause remains unclear. Neighbours did not report hearing any explosion - just the crash of masonry at dawn.

Some masonry fell on the nearby Naples-Salerno railway line, so traffic on it has been suspended.

It is a seismically active area but there is no suggestion that an earth tremor jolted the building.

There are suspicions that the collapse could be linked to vibrations from the railway, or to renovation work that was under way on the lower floors.

image copyright EPA image caption A sniffer dog team is helping - it is a silent search so that any sound from the rubble can be detected

image copyright EPA image caption The first two floors were being renovated and were empty at the time

image copyright EPA image caption The apartment block was built in the 1950s-1960s, the local mayor said