Three people have now been confirmed to have died on a construction site in Zen Drive, Ballito, after an embankment collapsed this morning.

Two others are feared to be dead and are still trapped beneath a mass of sand.

Earlier, the North Coast Courier’s Lesley Naudé reported from scene that the chances of survival for those trapped are very slim.

Theresa van den Berg from IPSS Rescue said in an interview on the scene in Zen Drive that an emergency call was received from neighbours just before 09:00 this morning.

“Workers were busy working on the construction site when a wall behind it collapsed. We were on the scene very quickly but they were already under the whole lot of sand that is here.”

According to Van den Berg the embankment above the construction site is very unstable which complicates rescue efforts.

It is understood that rescue workers had to stop their efforts several times because the embankment continued to collapse.

The road adjacent to the scene has been closed.

This is a developing story and updates will be published as more information becomes available.