CAIRO: A nine-storey building collapsed in the Egyptian capital early Saturday, leaving at least eight people dead and injuring two dozen, local reports said.
Police cordoned off the area in Cairo’s Gesr al-Suez district while civil defense and ambulance forces sifted through the rubble in a search and rescue operation.
“The governorate’s crisis room was informed at 3:00 am (0100 GMT) of the collapse of a building consisting of a basement, a ground floor and nine (upper) floors,” the Cairo governorate said in a statement.
It was not immediately clear what caused the collapse. But building collapses are not uncommon in Egypt due to illegal construction, and poor enforcement of regulations.
The Egyptian Public Prosecution ordered an urgent investigation into the reasons behind the collapse.
The incident in Gesr Suez occurred several hours after Egypt’s upper governorate of Sohag witnessed a catastrophic train smash that killed at least 32 people.
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