At least 60 people have been killed by the collapse¹ of a multi-storey building in a busy Delhi neighbourhood.

印度德里周边地区一座多层建筑发生倒塌，至少60人死亡。

Nearly 80 people were injured when the structure collapsed² in an eastern district of the Indian city on Monday.

About 30 others are believed still trapped in the rubble³, said Sheila Dikshit, Chief Minister of Delhi.

Ambulances and fire engines have had difficulty reaching the site of the accident, in the narrow lanes of the Lalita Park residential⁴ area.

"The scale of the tragedy is unprecedented⁵（空前的） . I don't think such a tragedy has taken place in Delhi in the recent past," Ms Dikshit was quoted as saying by the Press Trust of India news agency.

She said it was not immediately clear what had caused the accident but there would be an inquiry⁶（探究，调查） .

'Pack of cards'

The city's finance minister, AK Walia, said the foundations of the building may have been weakened by this year's monsoon⁷ floods, PTI reported.

The mostly residential building which also included some small businesses is located close to the Yamuna river, and may have been weakened by the floods which caused the river to burst its banks, officials say.

The building collapsed at about 2015 (1445 GMT).

"It fell like a pack of cards. I saw people high up hanging onto remaining bits of the walls. Some were trying to jump out but they couldn't. Others were trapped," Gurwinder Singh, a taxi driver, told the AFP news agency.

Many locals tried to lift pieces of the collapsed structure - which residents said was very old and occupied by labourers - themselves.

"There is no bulldozer（推土机） , no crane, there is nothing, whatever is being done is done by residents here," Sujoy, a resident of Lalita Park told local television network ANI.

Girija Devi, a mother of four who worked at a tailoring shop in the building, told the AFP news agency that she was pulled out of the debris⁸ by "some of the neighbours".

"But my sister is still trapped below the debris," she said.

Correspondents say building collapses⁹ are not uncommon¹⁰ in India and are often blamed on poor construction or unscrupulous（肆无忌惮的，寡廉鲜耻的） builders illegally adding additional floors.