8 Killed as Building Collapsed in Egypt

A residential structure collapsed in Cairo on Monday, killing eight individuals, including seven members of one family, according to the public prosecution and state media.

The Hadayek al-Qubba district building in the city "completely collapsed," according to a statement from the public prosecution, killing eight persons.

Another five people were able to exit the property before it collapsed, the statement stated. Nine individuals were taken out by civil defense personnel, including one injured woman; the other eight were dead.

The woman, along with two witnesses, "suggest that a resident who recently tore down walls in his first-floor flat"—despite neighbors' demands that he not do so—was responsible for the fall, according to the report.

The prosecution had to place the building's owner, the contractor in charge of the work, and one of his employees under arrest so they could be questioned.

According to a local resident quoted in the government publication Al-Ahram, seven members of one family were murdered.

The majority of the structures in central Cairo are from the 19th and early 20th centuries, and many of them are decaying or, in some cases, abandoned.

Due to both the poor condition of some buildings as well as noncompliance with construction and town-planning laws, Egypt has experienced a number of deadly building collapses in recent years.