"Nine dead people were pulled from the rubble" of the building in the village of Shakhan outside the city of Karaganda, according to the central Asian nation's interior ministry. The victims were three men, three women and three children.
Five people, including a 32-year-old man and two children, were rescued alive from the rubble. The search operation was called off later Monday, local media cited regional authorities as saying, as no cases of missing people were reported. Authorities got word at 22:40pm on Sunday (1640 GMT) that part of the building had collapsed and they rushed 70 emergency workers to the scene.
The remaining residents have been evacuated, the ministry said, adding that a government committee has been set up to probe the incident.
A criminal case has been opened to determine whether the collapse could have been cause by negligence, local media reported.
Copyright Agence France-Presse, 2017