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A multi-storey building in Ghana's capital Accra has collapsed, killing at least one person and trapping dozens inside.
`"We are doing our best to get to those trapped. We hear there are about three dozen," Kwame Avevoi, a police officer coordinating the rescue, told the Reuters news agency, on Wednesday.
Excavators were trying to lift and remove the building's broken beams and concrete blocks.
Ghana's President John Dramani Mahama said he has suspended his campaign for next month's election.
Mahama, in a tweet moments after the building collapsed, said: "My prayers are with the workers, shoppers and others who are trapped in the rubble of the Achimota Melcom building."
His deputy, Paa Kwesi Amissah-Arthur, is co-ordinating rescue efforts after the building collapsed in the city's Achimota neighbourhood.
Melcom Limited, which runs Ghana's largest chain of retail department stores, said it rented the building in the suburb of Achimota and opened its store there about six months ago.
"This is a tragedy and we are very much concerned about those trapped in there," Vitalina Adjimani, a Melcom
official, said.
"Our concern is not about the loss of property but it's about human lives," she said.
Emergency officials at the scene said the collapse was likely caused by structural failure.
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