A building in Nicosia’s old town collapsed in the early hours of Friday morning.

The building, a mud brick house, was located on Fuzuli street, which runs in front of the Ataturk primary school in the Yenicami neighbourhood.

The debris from the collapsed building blocked the street, with teams from the Nicosia Turkish Municipality (LTB) moving into the area to commence a cleanup operation on Friday morning.

Workers demolished the remaining standing walls in the building to prevent further collapse.

The building’s collapse also impacted power lines in the neighbourhood, with the north’s electricity authority (Kib-Tek) working to restore electricity to those impacted.

Speaking to newspaper Yeni Duzen, LTB architect Cemal Bensel explained that the building had “been in trouble for a long time,” as the plaster on the walls had absorbed water in the rains and prevented air from escaping from the bricks.

He explained that the house’s owner was not living in it, but in Portugal, and added “neglected houses always experience this in the old town.”

“The mud brick had reached the end of its life, could not stand it, and collapsed”.