A building has collapsed in Brazil’s northeastern state of Pernambuco, leaving at least five people dead and eight others missing, civil defence authorities say.

Four people had been rescued alive from the rubble of the building in the Janga neighbourhood on the outskirts of state capital Recife as of 7pm (2200 GMT) Friday, the state’s civil defence secretary said.

Pernambuco’s government said preliminary information pointed to more people still under the rubble

“Civil defence was called at 6.35am to respond to the collapse of the building in Janga,” the government said in a statement on social media.

“Eight of our teams have now been mobilised to the site.”

Recife, a coastal city of 1.5 million people, has been grappling with heavy rains in recent days.

The city and its metropolitan region were put under “state of attention” on Friday, which represents “moderate to high risk”, the government said.

-AAP