At least 18 people were killed from a building that collapsed in Cairo, Egpyt Monday night. Officials said Tuesday that the death toll is expected to rise.

The eight-floor residential building crumbled into a 15-foot high pile of rubble. Soldiers, emergency services and neighbors all worked together through the debris searching for survivors.

A local municipal official, Ahmed Fawzi said the collapse was most likely caused by an illegal extension built on the top of the building. He told reporters that only four people were able to completely escape from the collapse.

Bulldozers removed much of the rubble while bodies were removed in stretches.

For safety, four other buildings have been evacuated nearby. At least one was damaged during the collapse.

It is very common for buildings to collapse in Egypt because old apartment buildings are usually not kept up. Also, to avoid higher prices of construction, contractors would put up buildings without receiving proper permits and often disregard safety standards.

Some illegal buildings were destroyed along the Nile in order to protect canals that are needed to grow food.

Yet, neighborhoods are filled with unfinished brick and concrete buildings.

In July 2012, an 11-floor building collapse in al-Gumrok in Alexandria left 20 people dead.

One of its residents said, "They [the local council] should decide what should happen with the [precarious] buildings. Which should be demolished and which should be restored. Our work and our families are here, if we leave here we die, we don't know any place but here."

Egypt has the largest population in the Arab world where 86 million people are piled into a small percentage of habitable land along the Nile and in its river delta.

Housing Minister Mustafa Madbouly told Reuters last month that the government would offer cheap loans to help residents complete apartments in unfinished buildings thrown up illegally across the country.