Updated at 11.48am

Three people have been confirmed dead and two others are feared to have died after a bank collapsed at a construction site in Ballito this morning.

Neighbours of the house in Zen Drive said they heard shouts and jumped over the wall in an attempt to help the buried construction workers.

The house is being built below the road on a steep plot, where the building site had been cut out of the hillside.

Rescue workers are currently trying to dig out the five men.

Emergency workers believed the chances of survival for those trapped are very slim.

Theresa van den Berg from IPSS Search and Rescue said an emergency call was received from neighbours just before 9am.

“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.

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