Eight dead in Cairo building collapse - health ministry

CAIRO — Eight people were killed and three more injured when a six-story residential building collapsed in central Cairo on Tuesday, Egypt's health ministry said.

Nine ambulances were dispatched to the scene as rescuers continue to "lift rubble and search for any wounded or bodies", health ministry spokesman Hossam Abdel Ghaffar said in a statement.

A restoration order had been issued in 1993 for the building, which was constructed in the 1960s in Cairo's lower-middle income Al-Waili neighbourhood, according to district head Ahmed Awad, state newspaper Al-Ahram reported.

But "the building's residents had appealed the order and it was not executed," the official said.

Neighbouring buildings were evacuated Tuesday as a precautionary measure, according to a statement from Cairo governorate.

A large number of the buildings in central Cairo have gone unrestored since they were built in the 19th and early 20th centuries.

Greater Cairo — a sprawling metropolis home to over 26 million people -- has seen a number of deadly building collapses in recent years, both due the dilapidated state of some and, at times, failure to comply with building regulations.