Three children are among four people reported missing after a five-storey apartment block collapsed in the Kenyan capital on Tuesday night, a local official said.

The cause of the accident in Uthiru, a settlement that lies to the northwest of the city centre, is not known, Nairobi disaster management chief officer Bramwel Simiyu said.

“As of 10:00 pm (1900 GMT), all the families except four persons have been accounted for,” Simiyu said in a statement.

“The four missing persons include a nanny and two children from one household, as well as a 10-year-old girl from another residence,” he said, adding that detailed investigations would begin on Wednesday.

The Kenya Red Cross, which sent emergency teams to the site, said 10 people had suffered minor injuries.

The Nairobi area is one of the zones hardest hit by torrential rains and floods that have caused havoc across the country, claiming the lives of around 230 people and displacing more than 200,000.