At least 16 killed in explosion at steel plant in Turkiye
An explosion at a steel plant in western Turkiye has killed at least 16 people and injured 13 others. Search and rescue operations continue, with local officials saying some workers are still trapped under the rubble.
The blast happened at 11:46am local time (08:46 GMT) on Monday at the HABAS factory in Aliaga, about 60km (37 miles) north of Izmir, which sits on the Aegean Sea in western Turkiye.
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has announced an investigation and reported that two of the wounded were in serious condition.
Izmir's governor said the explosion was caused by an overhead crane falling into a large industrial furnace while the boiler was being replaced.
Izmir Mayor Cemil Tugay said that the full number of dead and injured would only become clear once the rubble had been cleared. Local officials said some workers were still trapped under the rubble.
Deniz Ulker, an eyewitness, said the explosion felt like an "earthquake". "When I looked at the factory across the street, thick black smoke was coming out. A fire broke out where the chimney was," he said.
Workers' groups say there is a long record of safety issues at the factory. The Izmir chapter of Turkiye's Labour Party, a small Marxist group, said it was "the third fatal incident" at the factory in three weeks. Writing on X, it warned that seven employees had died in accidents at the plant in the past 10 years and said that maintenance requirements and safety standards were not being met.
The European Union and Azerbaijan were among those to send condolences. After President Erdogan announced an investigation, authorities are examining the cause of the blast and the plant's safety arrangements.
