Six killed as unfinished eight-storey building collapses near Nairobi, rescue work continues in the rubble

At least six people have been killed after an unfinished eight-storey building collapsed in Syokimau, on the outskirts of Kenya's capital Nairobi. The building came down on Friday morning.

Construction workers were at the site when the building fell. According to a preliminary report from Nairobi City County's emergency team, the building's uppermost concrete slab gave way, bringing down part of the structure with it. The report did not establish why the slab failed.

The Kenya Red Cross initially reported that three people had been rescued and one person was reported missing. Television reports later said five people had been pulled alive from the rubble and taken to hospital.

The emergency report said the number of workers present when the building fell had not been confirmed, leaving open the possibility that others were still trapped under the debris.

Firefighters and specialist rescue teams were continuing to search the rubble for survivors.

Patrick Makau, the member of parliament representing Mavoko, the constituency that includes Syokimau, urged rescue agencies in a social media post to act quickly. 'Every second counts,' he wrote, offering condolences to the victims' families.

The collapse comes just three weeks after a similar disaster in the capital. On October 23, another building collapse in the city killed eight people. The twin disasters have revived calls for tougher safety oversight on construction sites.

The Kenya Institute for Public Policy Research and Analysis, a state research body, has identified poor workmanship, inadequate supervision, substandard materials and faulty designs as wider causes of building collapses in the country.