Egypt: Fire at garment factory kills 20

A fire at a garment factory near Cairo on Thursday killed at least 20 people and injured 24, officials said, the latest such incident in Egypt where safety standards and fire regulations are poorly enforced.

A fire at a garment factory near Cairo on Thursday killed at least 20 people and injured 24, officials said, the latest such incident in Egypt where safety standards and fire regulations are poorly enforced. The cause of the blaze, which ripped through the four-story plant in Obour, an outlying district of the greater area around the Egyptian capital, was not immediately known, according to a statement released by the government. Fifteen firefighting vehicles were dispatched to the scene to put down the blaze while ambulances were ferrying the casualties to nearby hospitals, the statement said. It added that a team of experts was looking into the damage and trying to assess the impact the fire might have had on any of the adjacent buildings in the area.