A three-floor house collapsed Friday morning in the Giza neighborhood of southwest Cairo, burying eight people who are all presumed dead, a police source said.
Rescue workers pulled out the body of the building's owner, engineer Maurice Moawwad, and were still searching for seven more people.
The building collapsed around 8:00 am (0600 GMT) while the inhabitants were sleeping.
City authorities had been asking for five years that the old house be torn down, judging it to be in danger of collapsing, but Moawwad refused and instead added on another two storeys, police said.
Recent heavy rains only worsened the building's condition, they said.
Police believe Moawwad's wife, son, two daughters, two sisters and a cousin are also dead under the building's debris.
Police originally believed nine people had died in the collapse, but later revised their toll.
Cairo suffers from a severely tight housing market, prompting many residents preferring to risk their lives in old homes rather than try to find safer buildings -- CAIRO (AFP)
© 2000 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
