Six people were killed and another six injured when a fire broke out Thursday morning in the Cairo district of Bab al-Shareya. Preliminary investigations show an electrical short circuit in a shoemaker's shop started the fire.

Ten fire engines responded to calls from local residents and rescue authorities put out the fire in the five-story building three hours after it started. The blaze had already engulfed the contents of the building, including its 26 shoe workshops.

Shamshoun Youssef, head of the Civil Defense Chamber of Operations, the government agency responsible for firefighting services, said the narrowness of the street on which the building is located complicated efforts to extinguish the fire. He also said residents helped out in putting out the flames and evacuating the building's occupants.

Six workshop employees who were sleeping when the fire started were killed, authorities said.

Edited translation from Al-Masry Al-Youm