At least 8 killed in building collapse in Cairo

CAIRO -- An apartment building collapsed on Tuesday in Egypt’s capital, killing at least eight people, authorities said.

The Health Ministry said in a statement that the collapse of the six-story building in Cairo’s western neighborhood of Waili also injured three people, who were hospitalized.

Cairo’s governor, Ibrahim Saber, ordered the evacuation of neighboring houses as a precautionary measure, according to a statement from the governor’s office.

It wasn't immediately clear what caused the building, which was constructed in the 1960s, to collapse. The governor’s office said that prosecutors were investigating.

Building collapses are common in Egypt, where shoddy construction and a lack of maintenance are widespread in shantytowns, poor city neighborhoods and rural areas.

The government has tried to crack down on illegal building in recent years after decades of lax enforcement. Authorities are also building new cities and neighborhoods to rehouse those living in at-risk areas.

But many Egyptian cities still contain entire neighborhoods of unlicensed apartment buildings and shantytowns that don’t follow building codes and regulations.