Egypt earthquake: Mother dies after shielding children during tremor

Cairo: A woman in Egypt's Menoufia Governorate died after collapsing while trying to protect her two young children during the earthquake that struck the country early on Monday, according to her family, although the Health Ministry said the tremor caused one injury and no officially recorded fatalities.

Relatives identified the woman as Basma Samir, 30, from the city of Quesna. They told local media she rushed to embrace her children, aged eight and four, and lay over them to shield them when the tremor began. 

Moments later, she collapsed and died. Family members said she had been in good health and had no known chronic medical conditions, adding that they believe the shock and fear triggered a fatal heart attack. 

Her funeral was held in Quesna amid widespread grief, while her story spread rapidly across Egyptian social media, with many paying tribute to the mother's final act of protecting her children. 

Separately, Egypt's Health Ministry said the earthquake resulted in only one injury and no official fatalities. In Cairo's Rod El Farag district, authorities evacuated three families from an ageing four-storey residential building after parts of the structure collapsed. Emergency teams secured the site and began inspecting neighbouring properties to ensure they had not been affected.

The Egyptian Red Crescent also received a report of a balcony collapse in the city of Suez, close to the earthquake's epicentre, although no casualties were reported. Authorities said emergency and engineering teams continued to assess damage and restore affected areas while investigations into structural impacts remained under way.

Although Egypt lies outside the world's major seismic belts, it has experienced several significant earthquakes, including the 1992 Dahshur earthquake, which killed hundreds of people, and the 1995 Gulf of Aqaba earthquake, which was felt across Egypt and neighbouring countries.