An aging, three-story building in a popular neighborhood of central Havana collapsed Tuesday night, killing at least three and injuring several others, according to official reports.

The tragedy occurred at about 9:30 p.m. in a residential neighborhood known as Cayo Hueso, where the vast majority of buildings and multi-family homes are in poor condition.

Some buildings have been declared uninhabitable by the Cuban authorities, although the families refuse to leave due to the country’s housing shortage.

The collapse mobilized dozens of paramedics and firefighters, as well as agents of State Security and specialized forces of the Interior Ministry’s construction section, according to Roberto de Jesús Guerra, director of Let’s Talk Press, an organization of dissidents in Havana. On Wednesday, the area was cordoned off by police and closed to vehicular traffic while workers examined the rubble.

“Unfortunately, what’s left of the building is only two walls. The rest fell apart,” Guerra said. According to local radio reports, six were injured in the collapse; four had to be rushed to Calixto Garcia hospital.

Emergency crews rescued two residents who lived on the second floor and had been trapped.

However, witnesses and emergency personnel who participated in the rescue and debris removal told El Nuevo Herald the death toll, initially put at three,could rise to as many as seven.

According to sources, several teens could be among the dead. At the time of the tragedy, a group of high school students had gathered at the building to study for a Thursday exam.

In the Wednesday edition of Gramna, the government newspaper, there was no mention of the tragedy. Eighteen hours after the collapse, the Cuban television news office released a brief report, which merely confirmed the initial, official death toll. “As a result of this unfortunate accident,” the station said, “three people died and another six were injured; four have been hospitalized.”

One of the survivors, identified as Teresa Reeve Lopez, 23, said the collapse came suddenly downward from the third floor. She managed to run away with her two young daughters. Other locals said the dilapidated building had suffered past structural problems.

The Cubanet independent news agency reported the building suffered partial collapses in 2006 and 2007.

In her popular Twitter account, Yoani Sanchez, founder of the Generation Y blog, said that the current condition of structures in Cuba is to blame. “Police are not letting anyone get close to the collapse with a camera,” she wrote. “They believe that the absence of images somewhat diminishes the horror.”

The scarcity and degradation of housing is a major social and economic problem in Cuba. The government estimates about 600,000 homes are needed in a country of 11.2 million. More than half of the existing buildings are reported to be in bad condition; typical old homes are collapsing.