A boy walks past rubble at the scene of the building collapse in Cairo

Cairo (AFP) - Eight people including seven members of one family were killed in Cairo on Monday when a residential building in Egypt’s capital collapsed, the public prosecution and state media said.

A statement from the public prosecution said the building in the city’s Hadayek al-Qubba district “completely collapsed”, killing eight people.

“Civil defence workers pulled out nine people, among them an injured woman, while the eight others were deceased”, the statement added, adding that “another five were able to leave the property before it fell down”.

Youths look on as rescuers and locals search for survivors in the rubble

It said the woman and two residents gave testimony “suggesting that the collapse was caused by a resident who recently knocked down walls in his first-floor flat”, despite neighbours asking him not to do so.

The prosecution ordered the arrest of the building’s owner, the contractor in charge of the works and one of his employees for questioning.

Government newspaper Al-Ahram, quoting a resident of the area, reported that seven members of one family had been killed.

A large portion of the buildings in central Cairo date back to the 19th and early 20th centuries, and many are dilapidated or in some cases have been abandoned.

Egypt has seen a number of deadly building collapses in recent years, both because of the poor state of some and also because of non-compliance with building and town-planning regulations.