CAIRO: A four-story apartment building collapsed on Wednesday in Cairo, leaving at least four people dead and three injured, authorities said. Rescuers were continuing to search the rubble.
Officials from Cairo Governorate said the building was in Hadaeq El-Qubbah neighborhood, about 3 kilometers from the city center. It was not immediately clear what caused the collapse and Egypt’s public prosecutor is investigating, they added.
The Public Prosecution Office said it has ordered an engineering committee to be formed to inspect the site, determine the cause of the collapse and prepare a detailed report. The Ministry of Social Solidarity said it would provide 60,000 Egyptian pounds ($1,941) to the families of the dead.
The building collapsed early in the morning and the victims died in their sleep. Rescuers reportedly pulled three survivors from the rubble, who were taken to hospital.
One local said that he awoke to the sound of the building collapsing. Another neighbor said the house was occupied by a single family and its owner had made modifications to it. The owner, his wife and their son were among the dead, he added.
In a separate incident, two people died in a fire in a five-story building in Old Cairo. The area was cordoned off as emergency crews worked to contain the blaze and prevent it from spreading. An investigations is underway to determine the cause.
A number of buildings have collapsed in recent years in Egypt, often as a result of the dilapidated condition of the structures, with numerous lives lost as a result.
On July 17, 13 people, including at least seven from a single family, died under similar circumstances and in the same neighborhood as Wednesday’s collapse.
In June, at least three people were killed when a 14-story apartment building collapsed in the northern coastal city of Alexandria. And in February, two people were killed and 25 injured when a gas cylinder explosion demolished two houses.
