Afragola, Italy - Rescue workers pulled a 10-year old girl alive from the rubble of a collapsed building in southern Italy on Saturday, although three other people were killed in the incident.

The girl had survived 10 hours buried under the collapsed building in Afragola, rescuers said. She was found next to the body of her elderly grandmother.

Earlier rescuers pulled the bodies of a couple who were trapped when the two-storey edifice collapsed shortly after midnight.

The 33-year-old man and his 29-year-old wife were found embraced together, one rescue official told television news channel Sky TG24.

News reports had earlier mistakenly reported that a child belonging to couple was also missing.

The whereabouts of three African immigrants who resided in the building were not immediately known. However, local residents said the three were not in the building when it collapsed.

Structural damage resulting from water leaking into the building's foundations is believed to have caused the collapse near the city of Naples.

As a precaution, officials ordered the evacuation of hundreds of people from nearby buildings in Afragola, which was hit overnight by a violent rainstorm. - Sapa-dpa