Residential building collapses in Istanbul: media

ISTANBUL -- A residential building collapsed in Istanbul on Sunday and seven of the nine people trapped under the rubble were rescued, Istanbul Governor Davut Gul said.

Gul told reporters on the scene that the three-story building in the Kucukcekmece district on the European side of the city collapsed at 8:40 am local time (0540 GMT).

Gul said that search and rescue teams have pulled seven people from the rubble while the operation to rescue the two individuals still trapped is ongoing.

The governor noted that the rescued people had been sent to nearby hospitals, with two of them in critical condition.

The cause of the collapse was not immediately clear, according to Gul.