• 03:07
  • Friday ,11 September 2015
العربية

Four die as residential building collapses in Egypt's Assiut

By Ahram Online

Home News

00:09

Friday ,11 September 2015

Four die as residential building collapses in Egypt's Assiut
At least four people were killed when a ramshackle building collapsed early Thursday in the governorate of Assiut, south of Cairo,
 
Rescue workers pulled two survivors from the rubble, including the block's owner, Aswat Masriya news website reported.
 
The dead included the owner's wife and their three sons. Their bodies were also retrieved.
 
Building collapses are commonplace in Egypt and are usually blamed on violations of building specifications, illegal extensions, and lax construction.
 
A provincial official said the five-storey apartment block, located in the city of Aboutig on the west bank of the Nile, was issued a demolition order that had not been upheld.
 
"The building was issued a high-risk demolition order and had been evacuated months earlier, but the family came that night for the first time," City Council head Salah Amer said.
 
The rescue team evacuated three adjacent buildings as a precautionary measure.
 
In May, six people of the same family, including three children, died in a separate building collapse in the city.