Cairo building collapses killing 8

Reuters, Cairo
Rescue teams have pulled eight bodies from the ruins of a high-rise building which collapsed in flames in Cairo and are searching for at least six more people under the rubble, a high-level security source said yesterday.

The 11-storey building collapsed Monday after catching fire. Most of the dead and missing were soldiers and rescue workers who had been evacuating the building when it collapsed. Officials said the building's residents had left before it fell.

"There's still hope. We are prepared to work for days until we are absolutely certain there's no one left in the building," said the security source, who declined to be named.

"You can pull survivors out of a building like this 48 hours after the incident. The bodies we are pulling out were probably hit by debris. People can survive in air pockets," he added.

A total of six more soldiers and rescue workers were still trapped under debris, the source said. But the authorities could not be totally sure more civilians were not trapped in the rubble in Cairo's commercial and residential area of Nasr City.