A Tanzanian police official says two people have died after a building under construction collapsed in the country's largest city and economic center.

Suleiman Kova, the police commander in charge of Dar es Salaam, said Friday 17 people have been pulled out of the debris, with three seriously injured.

Kova says the building was in the final stages of its construction and it did not have tenants. Most of the people caught up in the collapse of the 12-story building were passing by.

In recent years building collapses have become more frequent in East African countries. In neighboring Kenya, experts say because of high demand for housing in Nairobi, some property developers often bypass building regulations to cut costs and maximize profits.