At least 4 injured after 14-storey building collapses in Egypt
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At least four people were injured, and others were possibly still missing as at Monday night.
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EGYPT – A 14-storey apartment building popular with vacationing Egyptians collapsed on Monday in Alexandria, Egypt’s second-largest city, and rescuers were working to clear the debris, officials said.
At least four people were injured, and others were possibly still missing as at Monday night.
The collapse – in the city’s Sidi Bishr neighbourhood, a central residential area – adds to a series of building failures in recent years in Egypt, where a number of reports have highlighted widespread maintenance failures and dilapidated structures.
Speaking at the site, the city’s governor Mohamed El-Sherif said the collapse was caused by a “vertical split” in the structure, causing half the building to collapse.
He said late on Monday that people could still be in the rubble, raising the possibility of fatalities.
Mr El-Sherif added that the building, constructed in the 1970s, had been on the municipality’s list of buildings at risk of collapse and that the top floor had received a demolition order.
The Egyptian prosecutor-general said on Monday that he had ordered an investigation into the collapse.
Most apartments in the building are rentals used by vacationers during the summer season, said the Alexandria governorate in a statement.
It was not clear if the apartments were occupied. The Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha begins on Wednesday.
A video posted by Alexandria authorities showed smoke rising from the mountain of debris, and firefighters directing water hoses at it.
In 2021, non-profit organisation Arab Reporters for Investigative Journalism found that building collapses had killed 500 people in the previous seven years across Egypt.
According to the report, Alexandria was the deadliest governorate, with 86 deaths in that period, including 16 children. NYTIMES
