Witnesses say the eight-story residential buiding was fully occupied when it collapsed in the the middle of the night.
Rescuers who rushed to the scene were confronted with a pile of rubble as the frantic search for survivors began.
Local officials say the collapse was probably the result of a poorly built, illegal extension on top of the building, a common occurence in Egypt where building codes are
routinely ignored.
This man says the owners of the building had bribed local authorities.
"Here is the complaint from 1986," he says, "Not one brick is allowed to be built."
And now they're removing these bricks as fast as they can, in hopes of finding anyone who might still be alive.
