Five people were missing on Wednesday after an apartment building in Norway's western coastal town of Aalesund collapsed, police said. Media reports said about 21 people lived in the building and that several had been taken to hospital with minor injuries. Police told Reuters the chances of finding more survivors were slim.

Police said a rock slide had contributed to the disaster. "We early on knew that part of the mountain had come off, but whether that is the direct or indirect cause, is uncertain," police spokesman Magne Tjoennoey.

The apartment block, which was built against a mountainside, moved several metres, several eyewitnesses told public broadcaster NRK.

The lower floors of the building then caught fire, hampering rescue workers as they searched for those missing, police said. "We are currently not inside the building, which is crushed," Tjoennoey said, adding expert help was on the way. A second rockslide in the area had prompted the police to evacuate a number of nearby buildings, the police told Reuters.