Multi-Storey Building Collapses In Cologne

Television pictures showed huge mounds of rubble next to a church spilling 30 metres across a two-lane street.

 A multi-storey building containing thousands of historical records collapsed in the German city of Cologne on Tuesday, injuring at least one person and possibly trapping others.

Fire services said nine people had been reported missing after the collapse of the city's historical archive and two neighbouring buildings. More than 200 rescue workers were on the scene and sniffer dogs were searching for survivors.

Workers and visitors to the archive were able to flee in time after the 1970s building began making strange sounds, authorities said.

German media said the collapse may have been set off by work on an underground train line, though authorities could not confirm this. Nearby buildings were evacuated.

Television pictures showed mounds of brickwork and masonry spilling out some 30 metres onto the street.

Fire services said at least one person was injured.

One witness described how she saw a crack appear in the facade and spread higher and higher before the building collapsed in a cloud of dust.

"It was like a bad film," she told n-tv television.

The building was one of the biggest archives of its kind in Germany. Among its 65,000 documents were some dating back more than 1,000 years. The archive also housed half a million photos chronicling life in Cologne.