Monitoring Desk
CAIRO: At least four persons were killed on Sunday when an apartment building collapsed in Assuit city of Egypt, said a senior official.
Building collapses are common in Egypt, where poor-quality construction and a lack of maintenance are widespread in poor city neighborhoods, shantytowns, and rural areas.
Rescue teams recovered four dead bodies from under the rubble of a five-story building in the Qulta neighborhood of Assiut city, said the province’s Governor Essam Saad.
The governor said in a statement that rescuers also rescued two survivors who were shifted to a local hospital. Assiut city lies some 400 kilometers (250 miles) south of Cairo’s capital.
Building collapse incidents common in Egypt
The governor said that authorities had evacuated the nearby apartment buildings and dispatched equipment and bulldozers to secure and clear the site.
Footage shared by office of the governor appeared to show rescuers attempting to remove rubble and work through the ruins of the building.
By Sunday afternoon, rescue teams were searching for survivors using diggers and bulldozers to lift debris.
The collapse in Assiut city came a day after the roof of a building in the city of Mediterranean of Alexandria caved in, leaving two people dead and one critically injured.
The government has attempted to crack down on illegal buildings in recent years after decades of lax enforcement. Authorities are also building new cities and neighborhoods to rehouse those living in at-risk areas.
But many Egyptian cities still contain entire neighborhoods of unlicensed apartment blocks and shantytowns that don’t follow building codes and regulations.
