The death toll in the collapse of an apartment building in the Egyptian capital, Cairo, on Saturday, rose to 18, state media reported.
“Emergency teams in Cairo were able to recover 18 corpses from under the rubble of … collapsed property,” reported the newspaper Al-Ahram.
The Cairo governorate initially reported that five people were confirmed dead and 24 injured in the incident, in the Gesr Suez district, near Heliopolis, in eastern Cairo.
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Governor Khaled Abdel Aal “immediately went to the scene of the incident, accompanied by civil protection forces,” said the Cairo governorate earlier in the day.
He ordered the “establishment of an engineering committee” to inspect neighboring buildings for damage, the statement said.
“They took four people in front of me, who looked like they were about to die,” said Mohamamed Mostafa, a resident of the neighborhood.
Civilians and security forces assist rescue workers looking for survivors, with the help of a bulldozer, in the rubble of a building that collapsed in the popular Gesr Giza area, east of the Egyptian capital Cairo, on March 27, 2021 (AFP )
Egypt has suffered several fatal building collapses and industrial fire accidents in recent years, due to the dilapidation of many facilities and insufficient compliance with planning regulations.
The most recent collapse of a building came a day after a deadly train crashed in southern Sohag province on Friday, which killed 19 people.
Sharqia’s governorate also said on Saturday that a fire hit shops in ruins near the main railway station in the eastern city of Zagazig.
There were no deaths.
