Nine have been found dead so far, confirm official sources, upon the collapse of an eleven-storey building in the Egyptian Mediterranean city of Alexandria late Saturday night, which destroyed three neighbouring homes.

The search for survivors under the rubble is still ongoing, the sources announce.

Police rescue officials also say they have pulled out 16 wounded from the rubble by the early hours of Sunday.

President Mohamed Morsi's official Facebook page announced at around 4:00am Sunday that the president has ordered the city officials to arrange emergency shelters for survivors.

The newly-constructed building collapsed in the Alexandrian working class neighbourhood of El-Gomrok. Witnesses said the building housed four families and a bakery, but could not give an overall number of tenants.

Egypt has seen a number of construction disasters over the years, partly owing to building violations or bad maintenance.

At least 11 people were killed in Alexandria, Egypt's second largest city, in 2008 when a four-storey building collapsed late at night as residents slept.

That came a month after a massive rock slide buried a neighbourhood at the foot of a cliff in Cairo, killing more than 100 people.