Brides killed in building collapse

DAMIETTA, Egypt -- Twenty-two people, including many brides, were crushed to death when a building collapsed in the Egyptian city of Damietta.

The bodies were retrieved from the rubble of the four-storey building on Tuesday. Another 25 people were injured, officials said.

Many of the dead and injured were brides and attendants preparing for weddings at a beauty salon in the building, family members and witnesses said.

Funerals were due to be held later on Tuesday in Damietta, 105 miles north of Cairo.

A mother of one of the victims screamed wildly and beat her fists on the door of an ambulance covered with flowers carrying the coffin holding her daughter -- 17-year-old Basma el-Assany.

"She was an angel, she prayed all the time, she used to kiss me all the time. Who is going to kiss me now?" said the distraught mother, outside a mosque where four coffins had been taken.

Manal told The Associated Press that her daughter had been at the salon with bride-to-be Shireen Said el-Sarta and el-Sarta's sister, Rashia, when the building collapsed. All three died, the mother said.

A funeral procession took the coffin bearing another bride, Marwah el-Khouli, 18, for burial. A relative said a white satin sheet laying over the coffin indicated that el-Khouli had been young and planned to marry.

Anti-riot police surrounded the half-collapsed building with only rescue workers and building residents allowed into the area.

It was unclear how many people were in the building or what caused its collapse.

Residents had abandoned the building days earlier fearing it would collapse, Reuters news agency said.

Authorities had marked the building, which overlooks the River Nile, for demolition two years ago.