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Official reports show that local civil defense and armed forces were sent to put out the fire, while the cause of the blaze hasn't been verified yet.
In the early hours of Monday, Egypt's Ministry of Health and Population said in a statement that at least 38 people were wounded after a huge fire erupted at a security directorate in the Egyptian Suez Canal city of Ismailia.
Authorities said they had launched an investigation into the cause of the fire that destroyed the Security Directorate building in the city 110 kilometers (70 miles) northeast of Cairo. By dawn, the building had been reduced to a blackened concrete shell as emergency services doused it with water to prevent the flames from spreading again.
According to the statement, fifty ambulances rushed to the scene and transferred the wounded to Ismailia Medical Complex; twenty-four persons suffered serious burns and suffocation.
Official reports show that local civil defense and armed forces were sent to put out the fire, while the cause of the blaze hasn't been verified yet.
#Egypt | A huge fire injured at least 30 people at a police headquarters in Ismailia. pic.twitter.com/ZVnXGKh0lZ
— teleSUR English (@telesurenglish) October 2, 2023
No fatalities have been reported despite the building reportedly being fully staffed with policemen at the time of the incident.
State-run Nile TV reported the facade wall of the police premises was pulled down by the blaze that reached four floors.
All workers in the building were ordered to evacuate until the blaze is contained.According to the country's official statistics agency, there were more than 49,000 fires in Egypt last year, killing 203 people and injuring 855.
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