Alexandria's 13-storey apartment building that tilted into another in Azarita district more than two weeks ago was completely demolished by Saturday with no casualties, Governor Mohammed Sultan announced, as reported by Al-Ahram Arabic website. The governor hailed the engineering division of the North Military Region and the Faculty of Engineering at Alexandria University for their efforts, exerted during the past two weeks, to demolish the building, done manually and gradually from top to bottom. After the building tilted two week ago it was evacuated, along with nearby buildings, with residents resettled in emergency housing. Earlier, Sultan said that reports showed the sharp forward tilt was caused by additional floors added to the building, which had weakened the building's foundations. The building, in the coastal city of Alexandria, was initially granted a four-storey license, but an additional nine floors were illegally added without permission, the governor said. Alexandria's governor called on citizens not to deal with infringing real estate to prevent such crises that threaten lives, security and safety of the people. He also called on members of the House of Representatives to amend laws and criminalise not only construction done illegally and without a permit, but also dealing with such property, either by sale or purchase. Building collapses are commonplace in Egypt and are usually attributed to violations of building specifications, illegal extensions and lax oversight. Source: Ahram online
