According to police, a 14-story apartment building fell in Alexandria, a seaside city in northern Egypt, killing at least 3 persons.
Early Monday morning, a high-rise in the Muntazah neighborhood of the Mediterranean city collapsed, and initial reports indicated that eight people were missing under the debris.
The local authorities would not specify whether anyone was still missing on Tuesday but did acknowledge that three remains had been taken out. Although they were later released from the hospital, two people who were reportedly hurt in the collapse.
The cause of the fall was also not immediately understood, although similar accidents are not uncommon in Egypt, where substandard construction is ubiquitous in shantytowns, impoverished metropolitan districts, and rural areas.
Mohamed Al-Sharif, the city’s governor, announced that a cause-of-collapse inquiry had been started as well as search operations at the scene.
A total of 16 families made up the building’s full-time tenants, while beachgoers who visited Alexandria for a vacation during the sweltering summer months rented out the remaining units.
In large cities like Alexandria and Cairo, where real estate is in high demand, developers regularly flout zoning regulations in an effort to increase their profits, and extra floors are frequently added to structures without permission.
A four-story building in the Nile Delta city of Damanhour collapsed in February, killing six people after cooking gas cylinders exploded in the basement.
Egyptian authorities have cracked down on unauthorized building in recent years, and in many locations, they have relocated populations from dangerous homes and shantytowns to freshly constructed cities.
In addition to being imprisoned, those who violate building licenses frequently see their unlawfully constructed structures demolished.
