30 Mar 2021; MEMO: The death toll from a collapsed building in Gesr Suez in Egypt has reached 25 amid ongoing rescue operations, with 75 injured.
A six-month-old baby was found alive amidst the rubble though the baby's mother, father, and sister were found dead whilst his elder brother was still missing.
The Cairo apartment building, made up of a basement, ground floor, and nine further floors, collapsed on Saturday morning around 3 am.
Although it was initially reported that it was not clear what caused the collapse, eyewitnesses have reported that the building started leaning just days before it fell.
Whilst some of the residents left, others had nowhere else to go or didn't have the means to find somewhere else to stay.
Often in Egypt, where shoddy construction and illegal buildings are common, residents are aware their homes are unsafe but have nowhere else to go.
Gesr Suez authority told the public prosecution that a complaint was made about the building which collapsed on Saturday to the government but it was never investigated.
It has also been reported that several of the floors were not licensed and therefore built illegally.
Buildings collapse every few months in Egypt due to lack of oversight and unauthorised construction. Often, floors keep being added to buildings without permission and the necessary foundations.
Unsafe buildings are condemned but owners buy police off with bribes and therefore dangerous buildings are not pulled down, leading to fatal accidents.
Engineers say that around 20 buildings collapse every year in Alexandria alone, which has a particularly bad record for such occurrences.
