A six-story apartment building collapsed in Cairo’s Waili district on Tuesday, resulting in at least eight fatalities, according to authorities. The Health Ministry confirmed the deaths and reported that three others were injured and taken to the hospital for treatment.
Cairo’s governor, Ibrahim Saber, ordered the evacuation of nearby homes as a precaution. The cause of the collapse, which occurred in a building constructed in the 1960s, remains unclear, with investigations underway by local prosecutors.
Building collapses are frequent in Egypt, particularly in areas with substandard construction and inadequate maintenance, such as shantytowns and impoverished neighborhoods.
Despite recent efforts to combat illegal construction and improve enforcement, many Egyptian cities still feature entire neighborhoods of unlicensed buildings that do not comply with building codes. The government has also been working on developing new cities and communities to relocate residents from high-risk areas.