Five feared dead after rock slide wrecks flats

(AP Photo/SCANPIX,Svein Ove Ekornesvag)

Five people were feared dead after a rock slide demolished a block of Norwegian flats as its residents slept.

The search for survivors was hampered by two later falls that hit the flats, partly built into a steep hillside in Aalesund, about 220 miles north-west of Oslo.

The bottom floors of the building caved in just after 3.30 am today when the first slide slammed into it.

"We first thought it was an earthquake," said Lars Aage Eldoey, who managed to escape with his wife from the top floor of the building. When he got out on the balcony he realised what had happened.

"There were enormous rocks - not just rocks - half the hill had slid down into the bottom floors."

The subsequent slides started fires and neighbouring buildings had to be evacuated.

Rescuers said five people who lived in the building were unaccounted for and possibly buried by the debris inside.

Fifteen people were taken to a hospital, two of them with moderate injuries.