Three killed in building collapse in Pakistan's Karachi city

Senior police official Aran Kobra said the dead included a man and his son, who were sleeping at the time of the collapse

Pakistani volunteers carry an injured person rescued from a collapsed residential building in Karachi on July 18, 2017. Shakil Adil / AP

Volunteers look for trapped residents at the site of the building collapse. Shakil Adil / AP

Volunteers try to rescue a trapped resident at the site of the building collapse. Shakil Adil / AP

Rescue workers recover an injured man from the rubble of the three-story residential building, which collapsed before dawn in a poor neighbourhood of the port city. Akhtar Soomro / Reuters

Rescue workers go through the rubble of the collapsed building. Akhtar Soomro / Reuters

Three people were killed and 12 injured in Karachi on Tuesday when a dilapidated, three-story building in a poor neighbourhood of the Pakistani port city collapsed before dawn.

Senior police official Aran Kobra said the dead included a man and his son, who were sleeping when the building collapsed. Mr Kobra said up to two people were still believed to be trapped under the rubble.

"We are using heavy machinery with care as we have information that one or two people are still trapped in the rubble," he said.

Television footage showed a teenage boy crying for help as residents struggled with their hands to remove a concrete pillar that had fallen on his leg.

Later, the boy was rescued with the help of construction machinery.

Earlier, Karachi's deputy commissioner Farid Uddin said the death toll could climb as rescue workers carefully sifted through the rubble.

Mr Uddin said the cause of the collapse wasn't immediately known though reports indicated the building was old and poorly constructed, which could have contributed to the collapse.

Safety codes are often ignored in Pakistan and in some of the poorer areas construction is haphazard and bribes are paid to inspectors to approve substandard construction.