Egyptian authorities confirmed Tuesday that a massive fire that broke out the previous day at a prominent Telecom Egypt building in downtown Cairo left four people dead and more than two dozen injured.
The fire erupted inside a hall located on a floor that houses telecom operations and quickly spread to other levels of the 10-story structure due to its intensity, officials said. The victims, according to the company’s workers union, were employees trapped inside during the blaze.
As of Tuesday afternoon, the Health Ministry reported 27 people had been hospitalized, though some have since been discharged. Four bodies were recovered from the scene. Additionally, several individuals suffering from smoke inhalation were treated on-site and did not require hospital transfers, and thus were not included in the official injury count.
By Tuesday morning, the upper part of the building was visibly charred, with smoke still rising from the top floors as firefighters continued to hose down the site. The fire had been brought under control by then.
The incident caused a significant, though temporary, disruption to internet and mobile services across the country. According to global internet monitoring group NetBlocks, Egypt’s national connectivity had dropped to 62% of normal levels on Monday.
Air traffic was also affected by the outage, with some flights delayed. However, Egypt’s civil aviation ministry later confirmed that all delayed flights had since taken off.
Trading on the Egyptian Stock Exchange was suspended Tuesday due to technical disruptions caused by the outage, which affected the functioning of the trading system.
Communications Minister Amr Talaat assured the public that telecom services would gradually be restored within 24 hours. He added that network operations were being rerouted through multiple alternative switchboards to maintain service continuity.
Also Read:
Washington Nationals Fire Manager Dave Martinez and GM Mike Rizzo Amid Last-Place Struggles
Wildfires Force Evacuations in Greece While Turkey and Syria Struggle to Contain Fires
