Marseille building collapse: Rescue workers search rubble for casualties near city's Old Port

French rescue workers assess the rubble after a building collapsed in central Marseille (Picture: Jean-Paul Pelissier/Reuters)

Rescue workers were searching for casualties after two tall buildings collapsed in Marseille, southern France.

Authorities were looking for any possible trapped victims under the giant pile of rubble on Monday morning.

Two people, said to have been bystanders in the street, were confirmed to have sustained minor injuries and were treated at the scene near the city's famous Old Port.

Agencies reported one of the buildings was six storeys high, while the other had five storeys.

Firefighters work at the scene where a building collapsed In Marseille (Claude Paris/AP)

Passers-by were forced to cover their mouths due to the sheer amount of dust following the collapse.

Dozens of fire officers were at the scene, some with sniffer dogs, as the dust also covered parked cars in the street.

A sniffer dog tries to locate potential casualties in the rubble (Claude Paris/AP)

Sabine Bernasconi, the mayor for that part of Marseille, said one of the buildings had been in poor condition and had been subject to an evacuation order.

She also suggested it could have been in use by squatters.

Fire officers remove rubble at the site where two buildings collapsed (Gerard Julien/AFP/Getty Images)

Dramatic pictures showed an enormous pile of rubble and beams on the street, with a large gap between two buildings where the collapsed structures used to be.

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