Hopes fade for five missing after building collapse in Norway: police

0 Comments | AFP, March, 2008

OSLO (AFP) — Hopes were fading Wednesday of finding five people alive after a six-story apartment building collapsed in the western Norwegian town of Aalesund in a possible rockslide, police said.

"The chances of finding any survivors are minimal," Kjell Kvernseth, a police official in charge of the rescue operation, told AFP by telephone from the scene.

The modern building, built into the hillside in 2003, collapsed around 3:30 am (0230 GMT) Wednesday with its lower levels caving in, probably caused by a rockslide.

Fifteen residents were evacuated from the building.

"Two are slightly injured, the others are unharmed," a local police official, Magne Tjoennoey, said.

The collapse caused a leak in a propane gas tank in the building's basement,...