Syria: At least 16 dead after building collapses in Aleppo
At least 16 people have died after a residential building collapsed in the Syrian city of Aleppo on Sunday, state media reported.
The five-storey structure collapsed in the Sheikh Maqsoud neighbourhood of Syria's second-largest city, according to Sana state news agency.
Five children were among the dead, AFP reported, citing a Kurdish news agency.
The incident occurred due to water leakages into the foundations of the building, a source in Aleppo's civil administration told Sana.
Rescue workers, including civil defence and firefighting teams, were searching to recover missing individuals late into Sunday.
Those who died were internally displaced Syrians from the nearby northern city of Afrin, according to the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR).
Sources told SOHR that the building housed five families, most of whom were stuck under the rubble. Emergency teams were able to rescue a 15-year-old, the monitoring group added.
Since the beginning of the Syrian war in 2011, about 250,000 civilians have been killed, with some 14 million people displaced from their homes, according to the Syrian Network for Human Rights.
The Sheikh Maqsoud area is home to many Syrian Kurds, who fled from Afrin after Turkey launched an air and ground offensive on the area in January 2018.
In September, 10 people were killed including three children after a five-storey building collapsed in Aleppo's Ferdaws neighbourhood.
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