Building collapse in Cairo kills at least eight

An apartment building has collapse in Egypt's capital, killing at least eight people, authorities say.

The health ministry said in a statement that the collapse of the six-storey building in Cairo's western neighbourhood of Waili also injured three people.

Cairo governor Ibrahim Saber ordered the evacuation of neighbouring houses as a precautionary measure, according to a statement from his office.

It was not immediately clear what caused the building, which was constructed in the 1960s, to collapse.

The governor's office said that prosecutors were investigating.

Building collapses are common in Egypt, where shoddy construction and a lack of maintenance are widespread in shantytowns, poor city neighbourhoods and rural areas.

The government has tried to crack down on illegal building in recent years after decades of lax enforcement.

Authorities are also building new cities and neighbourhoods to rehouse those living in at-risk areas.

But many Egyptian cities still contain entire neighbourhoods of unlicensed apartment buildings and shantytowns that do not follow building codes and regulations.