CAIRO (AP) — A building collapsed in a neighborhood in the Egyptian capital of Cairo on Tuesday, killing at least three people, the city’s emergency services said.
The five-story residential structure came down in the densely populated area of Imbaba, an official from the civil protection services said. It was not immediately clear what caused the collapse.
The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to brief the media, said that search and rescue workers were looking through the rubble for survivors. He said the structure’s fall had also brought down balconies from neighboring buildings.
Building collapses are common in Egypt, where shoddy construction and lack of maintenance is widespread in shantytowns, poor city neighborhoods and rural areas.
In June, a building collapse killed six in Cairo. In 2022, one single collapse killed 25, but a 6-year-old infant survived the disaster.
With real estate at a premium in big cities like Cairo and the Mediterranean city of Alexandria, developers seeking bigger profits frequently violate building permits. Extra floors often are added without proper permits.
The country’s government has tried to crack down on illegal building in recent years after decades of lax enforcement. But the mega-city still contains entire neighborhoods of unlicensed red brick apartment buildings and shantytowns.
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