Rescue efforts are now underway to excricate a man trapped inside the operator's seat of an overturned excavator in Novena Ville.

It is understood that the excavator toppled sideways into a ditch at a construction site of a four-storey residential and commercial building at about 9am on Thursday.

As of 10.30am, Singapore Civil Defence Force officers were at the construction site.

They were seen using an onsite exacavator and hydraulic rescue equipment to try and free the man.