The external lift, designed to carry up to 24 people, was carrying about 20 workers when it started to fall early Thursday afternoon at Wuhan's East Lake Scenic Garden compound, the semi-official China News Service said.

The agency said four men and two women fell out of the lift around the 10th floor. The remainder hit the ground.

There were no reports of any survivors.

The agency and other state media showed photographs of police, workers and onlookers surrounding the site of the accident, which lies inside a large compound with several residential towers also under construction.

China Central Television said the accident was caused by a broken cable and that the dead were all decorators working on the building.

Wuhan, a conurbation of more than 10 million people on the southern banks of the Yangtze river, is one of central China's major cities.