At least five people were missing after a seven-storey building collapsed in a residential area of Kenya's capital, Nairobi, rescue services said on Tuesday, and the city's governor appealed to its owner to come forward and provide architectural plans to help rescuers.
Officials said the building's tenants had been asked to leave on Monday after residents reported cracks in the walls.
"People [were] evacuated but we might have some people who might have been left behind," Pius Masai, deputy director of the National Disaster Management Unit, told the Reuters news agency at the site of Monday night's collapse.
The incident occurred in a very low income neighbourhood near Nairobi's international airport southeast of the capital, Red Cross spokeswoman Noellah Musundi told the AFP news agency.
Quoting City Hall, The Star newspaper said the structure was built in 2007 without planning permission or approval.
"Kware area was unplanned. No developments are allowed there. But you find that most of these developers were brought by politicians," Nairobi Lands executive Christopher Khaemba told the paper.
Most of the risky buildings are usually in the poorer sections of the city. Attempts to deal with the problem in the past have been stymied by owners of the buildings, who rush to court to stop demolition or other actions. 
Kidero asked magistrates and judges to consider the human cost of unsafe buildings before issuing court orders against demolition.
Most of Nairobi's four million people live in low-income areas or slums. 
Kidero, the governor, said at least 30,000 to 40,000 buildings constructed without approval in the Kenyan capital were at risk of collapse.

Source: News agencies