Apartment Building Collapses In Cairo

FOR THE RECORD (October 29, 1996): Correction An editing error resulted in an extraneous paragraph appearing in a World digest item about a building collapse in Cairo, Egypt. The building collapse was not the result of military action.

A 12-story apartment building in suburban Cairo collapsed Sunday, killing at least two people and injuring 17.

The death toll could rise, since police said there were more than 40 apartments in the building and that not all residents were accounted for. Egyptian television reported that the structure also housed an X-ray clinic and that patients could have been trapped there.

The front and side walls of the concrete-block-and-plaster building had fallen, and only part of the rear wall remained standing. Debris was piled up to about the level of the fifth floor.

Rescue workers removed some of the debris searching for survivors, using sniffer dogs to locate them. About an hour after the collapse, six people were pulled out alive.

It was not clear what caused the collapse of the 30-year-old building in Heliopolis, a residential and commercial area on the east side of Cairo.

The thud of bombs and staccato bursts of anti-aircraft fire over the capital Sunday disrupted the wailful sound of morning prayers.