12 feared dead in Cairo collapse

Press, 14 January 1986, Page 6

12 feared dead in Cairo collapse

NZPA-Reuter Cairo At least 12 people were feared killed when five buildings in central Cairo collapsed yesterday, said rescue workers and residents.

They said that two bodies were recovered and five people were rescued from the debris. At least 10 more people were believed still buried under piles of rubble, said the residents.

Police said that there was no hope of finding more survivors and they planned

to move in bulldozers to clear the ruins in bustling Mohammed Ali Street, close to the old Opera House. One survivor, a student, aged 24, was trapped near a butane gas cylinder and it took rescue workers six hours to dig a tunnel through crumbling bricks to pull him out.

Residents said that the collapse started when a five-storey apartment block caved in, bringing down four adjoining houses and sending a huge sand cloud

billowing over the area. According to one eyewitness, a middle-aged woman who identified herself only as Nadia, the buildings were very old and a Government expert had been expected to examine them last week to decide whether or not they should be pulled down. Riot police cordoned the block, which overlooks the crowded Mohammed Ali Street — famous in the 1950 s and 1960 s for the belly dancers and dance troupes living there.