A four-story building collapsed onto a smaller structure in Cameroon's most populous city Douala, with at least 12 people losing their lives.

A building collapsed in the Cameroonian city of Douala, killing 12 people, authorities said on Sunday.

Douala, located in the western Littoral region, is Cameroon's commercial center and most populous city.

The four-story building was in the city's eastern Ange Raphael neighborhood. It fell down onto another residential building, around midnight local time (2300 UTC).

"Twelve died and the others are in hospital for medical attention," Littoral Governor Samuel Dieudonne Ivaha Diboua said.

He said that 31 people in total were affected by the collapse.

Municipal councilor Charles Elie Zang Zang said that rescue services were searching through the rubble for survivors.

The cause of the collapse was not immediately clear.

In June 2023, local authorities identified 500 buildings in danger of collapse throughout the city.

sdi/dj (Reuters, AFP, AP)