CAIRO, Nov. 25 (UPI) -- At least 18 people are dead and several others are possibly trapped after an eight-story apartment building collapsed in the Matariya district early Tuesday. Rescue workers are continuing to search for survivors under the rubble in the west Cairo suburb.
Desperate family members joined in the search after the early morning collapse, moving chunks of stone by hand in an effort to find survivors.
About 25 people lived in the building. Authorities said the building collapsed because the landlord illegally added several floors to the old building, a common problem in Egypt.
In 2013, 24 people died and 12 other were injured when an apartment building collapsed in Alexandria. Authorities cited poor maintenance and building specification violations as the cause.
