Mumbai Building Collapses: At Least 13 Dead, 20 Injured, Dozens Feared Trapped Among the Rubble (PHOTOS)

A five-story residential block of 22 apartments collapsed at around 6 a.m. this morning in Mumbai, India, killing 13 people with dozens more trapped among the rubble, AFP News reports.

Rescue workers pulled out 50 survivors from the debris, diggers lifting heavy slabs of concrete to recover and look for more. Twenty people pulled out suffered injuries, all of whom were sent to local hospitals, and 27 were unharmed. Dozens are feared to remain trapped 11 hours after the collapse.

"Approximately 80 to 90 people are believed to be left behind in the building and trapped," Alok Awasthi, local commander of the National Disaster Response Force, told the Associated Press.

"My heart is thumping with fear. I'm just hoping," Shanta Makwana, a woman whose daughter and grandchildren were trapped in the block, said to AFP.

"My uncle and aunt have been staying here for years. I rushed here after hearing the news on TV. But the police are not telling us anything. We are just waiting," said local receptionist Neha Jagdale, who arrived at the scene this afternoon.

Local officials report that 22 families lived in the block, owned by the civic administrative body, the Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai. Earlier this year, the Corporation asked families to leave the block, though he did not specify why exactly.

"The building was around 30 years old. We had issued a notice to them in April, to vacate the building, but they did not act," spokesman Vijay Khabale-Patil told AFP News.

In the last few months, five other blocks in India's financial capital city have collapsed, including one that killed 74 people in April. In June, three buildings crumbled, killing a total of 25 people, the monsoon season of heavy rains thought to exacerbate the buildings' structural problems.

With property costs in the city sky-high, many low-income families in Mumbai live in poorly constructed residences that violate building codes and are prone to lax inspections. And with more of half of the city's residents living in slums, including new arrived migrants, India's housing shortage continues to be a major problem.

Click here to see photos of the residential block collapse, with rescue workers on scene trying to recover more survivors from the rubble and debris.