CAIRO (Reuters) – A huge fire broke out at a police facility in the Egyptian city of Ismailia on the Suez Canal early Monday, injuring at least 25 people before firefighters were able to bring the blaze under control several hours later, emergency services and media reported.
Video clips spread on social media showed the city security directorate on fire. The cause of the fire was not immediately known.
Two witnesses told Reuters that firefighters initially appeared to be struggling to control the fire. More than three hours later, state television said the earthquake had been contained.
[1/6]Efforts are being made to extinguish a fire that broke out in a police facility in Ismailia, Egypt, on October 2, 2023. Reuters/Mohamed Abdel Ghani Obtaining licensing rights
The Egyptian Ambulance Authority said that at least 25 people were injured in the initial casualty count.
Civil defense sources said that parts of the building collapsed as a result of the fire.
Interior Minister Mahmoud Tawfiq said that a committee of advisors will be formed to look into the causes of the fire and review the structural safety of the building “to restore its efficiency as quickly as possible,” according to what his ministry quoted him as saying.
The Ismailia incident was the last major fire to hit Egypt. A church fire killed at least 41 people in August 2022.
(Reporting by Hatem Maher, Yousry Mohamed and Tala Ramadan – Prepared by Mohamed for the Arabic Bulletin) Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman, Christian Schmollinger and Deborah Kivricosaios
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