Three children sought after Alexandria building collapse kills two

Three children—Jana, Hanin and Maryam Hossam—were still being sought beneath the rubble of an Alexandria apartment building early Wednesday. Al-Ahram’s report, displayed at 4:18 a.m. on October 21, described a continuing search. It did not establish whether the children were alive or what eventually happened to them. ¹⁸

Two people were reported dead after the five-storey building collapsed in Abu Suleiman, in the Egyptian city’s East district. Cairo24 and Youm7 both reported that rescuers had recovered a second body. That makes two a corroborated death count, not a final toll. ^{1 19}

The collapse was initially reported as happening on Tuesday evening, October 20, 2026. By early Wednesday, the central questions remained brutally immediate: could rescuers find the children, and could they account for everyone who had been inside? The latest search report did not establish that either task was complete. ^{1 18}

Cairo24 identified the people killed as Neama Mohamed Ali Askari, 65, and Ahmed Ashraf Moussa Ali, 23. It reported that Civil Protection personnel recovered another body from beneath the debris and that an ambulance took it away. Youm7 separately reported the recovery of the young man’s body after the woman’s death. ^{1 19}

Two injured survivors were named by Cairo24: Amal Salah Eissa and Hoda Ahmed Mohamed. Their injuries and subsequent medical conditions have not been established. Nor does the identification of those two survivors settle how many other people may have escaped or been rescued. ¹

The rescue accounts do not fit into a reliable running total. Youm7 reported three injured people extracted in an article displayed at 11:58 p.m. on October 20. Al-Ahram’s account, displayed at 12:03 a.m. on October 21, instead described two people rescued and a search for a third. Cairo24’s later casualty report, displayed at 2:35 a.m., named two injured survivors. The displayed clock times have no established time zone. ^{21 17 1}

Those reports cannot safely be added together, and the later account does not explain the earlier difference. There is no identified third rescued survivor or verified explanation reconciling the figures in the available reporting. The overall number injured therefore remains unsettled. ^{21 17 1}

The subsequent search for three children is a separate development. It is not confirmation of three additional deaths, and it does not explain why earlier reports differed over the number of injured people pulled out. Al-Ahram gave the children’s names but did not establish their ages or the search’s outcome. ¹⁸

Keeping those categories separate matters. A death count, a rescue count and a report of people still being sought answer different questions. Combining them would create an apparent certainty that the reporting does not support.

A preliminary inspection described a ground floor and four upper floors. The ground floor and first upper floor were unoccupied, according to Cairo24. That leaves unanswered how many people were on the remaining floors when the building fell; empty lower floors are not an accounting of everyone inside. ¹

Cairo24 identified the structure as No. 34 on Saad Zaghloul Street, off Al-Teraa Al-Mardouma Street, in Abu Suleiman. The precise street identification remains preliminary and has not been independently reconciled. The neighborhood and city are more firmly established than the exact address. ¹

Police received the emergency notification through the Second Raml police district and went to the site with Civil Protection personnel. Cairo24 reported the dispatch of two fire engines and 12 ambulances. Responders established a security cordon and placed a metal barrier around the collapsed structure to keep people away from the danger area and control movement nearby. ¹

Utility representatives also attended, and gas and electricity were disconnected as a precaution. Cairo24 reported that a recovered body was taken to the morgue under the investigators’ authority. These were measures to secure the scene and handle the immediate consequences—not evidence that the search had ended. ¹

Governor Ayman Attia and Alexandria security chief Hatem Haddad were reported at the scene. Al-Ahram attributed to the governor an account of local authorities, security personnel and Civil Protection working together, with rescue efforts intensified and the area secured. That official description established the response being mounted, but not a final casualty accounting. ^{17 21}

A case record was opened and investigators were notified, according to Cairo24. The cause of the collapse remains unknown. No completed technical inquiry or prosecution outcome has been established in the available reporting. ¹

Questions about the building’s permit history and any demolition or repair orders also remain unresolved. There is no established finding here that permits were valid or missing, that such orders existed, or that anyone failed to enforce them. An investigation into those possibilities must not be mistaken for proof of a violation.

For now, the most consequential missing answer is still the one beneath the rubble: the fate of the three children. Until that search is resolved and everyone who was inside is accounted for, two reported deaths cannot be treated as the end of the story. ¹⁸