Three boys among six killed in building collapse north of Cairo

Gas cylinder explosion said to have caused four-storey apartment block to fall

A still from footage of a fatal building collapse in Egypt last December.

Six people, including three boys, were killed and at least 20 injured when an apartment building collapsed on Friday in the Nile Delta city of Damanhur, north-west of Cairo.

Officials said the four-storey block fell down after a gas cylinder exploded.

Two adjacent buildings suffered structural damage, they said.

Authorities released the names of the six fatalities, who included three boys; Youssef Ahmed Amin, 10, Yassin Ashraf Mahdi, 5, and Yassim Ahmed Mohammed, 3. Yassin's father, 49-year-old Ashraf Mahdi, was also killed.

Building collapses are common in Egypt, where poor construction and shoddy building maintenance are common, especially in shanty towns, low-income neighbourhoods and rural areas.

Last month, six people were killed in an apartment block collapse in the southern city of Assuit.