Cairo governor Khaled Abdel Aal follows up on injured from Gesr el Suez building collapse (Photo courtesy of Cairo governorate)
At least eight people died and 24 were injured when a building collapsed early Saturday in Cairo’s working-class district of Gesr El-Suez.
Search is still underway for more bodies under the rubble.
The prosecution is investigating the incident through a technical committee tasked with determining the reason behind the collapse.
Cairo governorate said the 10-storey building, located near Omar bin El-Khattab metro station, collapsed at 3am.
The injured were taken to two hospitals in Cairo.
The governorate said it has formed a technical committee to inspect nearby buildings to determine if they were affected by the collapse.
Incidents of building collapses are not uncommon in Egypt and are usually attributed to violations of building regulations, illegal building extensions, and lax government oversight.
However, Egypt has pledged the adoption of “resolute” measures to stop building violations, especially in agricultural lands nationwide.
It has asked citizens to reconcile over building violations, the latest set to expire at the end of this month after several delays which saw the state receiving over two million reconciliation requests and collecting more than EGP 16 billion in reconciliation fees.
The country has seen a significant rise in illegal construction since the security vacuum that followed the 2011 uprising, with many people constructing multi-storey buildings without acquiring the necessary permits or complying with engineering safety standards.
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