A six-storey office building collapsed in Shanghai Tuesday morning on the construction site of a local metro line.

Two police officers pass the wreckage of a collapsed six-storey office building on the construction site of a metro line in Shanghai on July 1, 2003.  [newsphoto.com.cn]

Several other nearby buildings were damaged by the accident, but no casualties were reported.

The collapsed building, an audio-video wholesale market near the Bund area, began to shake in the early hours of Tuesday, when work on the cross-Huangpu-River metro line M4 was going on 20 metres underground.

The rattling sound made two guards on night duty inside the building call the police around 6 am, according to a man surnamed Xu, who lives in the neighbourhood.

After people were evacuated, the building later began to show more signs of a possible collapse, as its windows cracked and splits appeared on the walls.

Following the collapse of its interior sections, the entire building came down around 9 am, said witnesses.

Emergency rescue staff soon rushed to the site, which was immediately blocked off by the police following the accident.

Power supplies were cut in the affected area where several other buildings also showed signs of instability, and people were evacuated from them.

Mayor Han Zheng and Vice-Mayor Yang Xiong arrived later at the site to guide rescue efforts.

The cause of the accident is still under investigation, police said.

Engineering statistics at the site were collected by the metro construction staff for analysis.

According to reports from Eastday.com, the accident happened because a lot of drifting sands suddenly poured into the under-construction tunnel for the metro line that night, causing the ground to give in.

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