At least 10 people have been killed and 23 injured after a building in Cambodia collapsed, trapping workers under rubble, officials said on Saturday.

The seven-storey concrete building collapsed on Friday in the coastal town of Kep, about 160 km (100 miles) south-west of the capital Phnom Penh.

It came six months after another construction site collapsed, killing 28 people in Preah Sihanouk province.

“There are five dead that we have already pulled out and there are other five people dead that we saw and we haven’t been able to pull out from the collapsed building yet,” Kep governor Ken Satha told Reuters.

A rescue team searches for missing workers at the site. Photograph: Mak Remissa/EPA

An unknown number of workers remained trapped, Satha said, adding that authorities had detained a Cambodian couple, the owners of the building, for questioning.

The couple had intended to build a guesthouse, Satha said.

Hun Sen, the prime minister, said on Saturday that rescuers were still struggling to reach those missing in the rubble.

“As of the 4th this morning, emergency crews are still working on the removal of the concrete slab, cutting through iron fittings to continue to find more people,” Hun Sen said on his Facebook page on Saturday.

Cambodia is undergoing a construction boom to serve growing crowds of Chinese tourists and investors.



