(Adds survivors, warrant for owner, other details)

CAIRO, Dec 24 (Reuters) - At least five people were killed on Monday when a 12-storey residential building collapsed in Egypt's Mediterranean city of Alexandria, a security source said.

Rescue workers pulled the five bodies from the rubble and dug out two survivors, but as many as 30 other people remained buried and authorities expected the death toll to rise.

State news agency MENA quoted Alexandria Governor Adel Labib at the scene of the collapse as saying a rescue operations room had been set up and local hospitals had been alerted to prepare for more injured.

Labib added that authorities estimated that 25-30 people were still beneath the debris.

Abdel Maguid Selim, director of Alexandria security, told reporters construction workers had been doing repairs on the first floor when the building suddenly tilted and collapsed.

A judicial source told Reuters a commission had been established to investigate the collapse, and a warrant had been issued for the arrest of the woman who owned the building.

The source added the owner had built a seven-storey building in 1982 without a permit and later secured a license, but had then illegally built an additional five storeys.

According to MENA, authorities had issued at least two orders for renovation work to be done on the building, but it was not carried out.

Survivor Fawzia Mohmaed Abdel Muti told MENA that when the collapse began she thought it was an earthquake. Trapped under the rubble and praying, she could hear moaning she believed was her mother, who had also been in their apartment, along with Abdel Muti's daughter.

Streets leading to the site of the collapse were sealed off. Buildings on either side of the collapsed block suffered structural damage and were evacuated.

Building collapses are frequent in Egypt because of lax building standards and poor maintenance. (Writing by Aziz El-Kaissouni; editing by Andrew Roche)

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