At least 16 people died when a half-built apartment block collapsed in the Moroccan city of Khenitra and local officials said more could be trapped under the mass of rubble and twisted steel.

Rescuers dragged out another body yesterday afternoon, almost 24 hours after the collapse, as diggers heaved aside piles of concrete slabs. Hundreds of residents looked on from behind metal barriers. Twenty-six people were injured.

Many of the victims were builders having lunch in the building's basement.

"I felt something like an earthquake and rushed out to find the building totally flattened," said local resident Mohammed L'Khnati, 30. "I ran over and some of us dragged two people free but I could hear others trapped inside, crying for help."

The building was part of a low-cost housing and commercial project managed by real estate firm El Manal on the outskirts of the fast-growing city which lies 40 kilometres north of Rabat, said Khenitra provincial councillor Miloud Lakhdar.