The North Cairo Prosecution decided yesterday to arrest a contractor handling the restoration work of a building that collapsed two days ago in Shubra, which left seven people, including three children, dead.
The contractor will be detained pending further investigations.
The prosecution decided to release a worker and a lawyer arrested earlier, and ordered the arrest of another lawyer believed to have been behind the restoration.
The prosecution has also requested the immediate release of the engineering committee’s report which should explain why the building collapsed, and summoned the building owner and other district officials to give their testimonies.
Eye witnesses and victims accuse the contractor, a restoration worker and two lawyers of causing the collapse of the building.
The contractor, for his part, said he was doing some repair work to the lawyer’s apartment, adding that he did not notify the district council because the lawyer who hired him claimed he had already done so.
Meanwhile, civil defense forces managed to pull the bodies of the victims out of the rubble two days ago.
Nabil Haleem, head of the Shubra district council, said the collapsed building was built in 1946 and has no file. He added that building residents did not notify him of the restoration work .
Translated from the Arabic Edition.
