More than 19 people were killed and several were feared trapped after an eight-storey building collapsed in the western Cairo suburb of Matariya. Police officials said that eight residents of the building were also injured when the building fell in early on Tuesday. Rescue teams were searching for survivors trapped under the rubble and several surrounding buildings have been evacuated. Others are still thought to be missing under the rubble. The building is believed to have been inhabited by 27 people. Police officials, who spoke to the media on condition of anonymity, said the collapse was caused by unauthorised construction of two extra stories on the old building. Building collapses are relatively common in Egypt, where shoddy construction is widespread in shantytowns, poor city neighbourhoods and rural areas. With a housing shortage and lax government oversight, developers seeking bigger profits frequently build without authorisation or permits. According to Hossam Abdel-Ghaffar official spokesman of the Ministry of Health and Population, the final number of casualties is yet unidentified, concerned authorities are still removing the rubble of the collapsed building. This is not the first such incident to take place this year, last September two children died when two separate buildings collapsed in the Upper Egyptian governorate of Sohag.
