In a major tragedy on the eve of Ayudha Pooja, 12 persons, including three women, were killed and 12 injured when a block of 24 flats collapsed in Coimbatore in Tamil Nadu on Friday evening.

The dead included a nine-year-old boy. All the injured, including three women, had been admitted to a government hospital, the police said.

Operations are on to rescue those trapped in the debris of the building, which was reportedly 30 years old and located in Ukkadam, a middle-income group locality.

The residents, who earlier staged a road roko to draw the attention of the authorities to the need for urgent repairs to the dilapidated building, were busy shifting their belongings to safer places when it collapsed in heavy rains, at around 6.30 pm, the police said.

Senior district and police officers, including district collector Neeraj Mittal and commissioner, C K Gandhirajan are at the spot, supervising rescue operations