An explosion ripped through an iron and steel factory in western Turkey on Monday, killing 10 workers and injuring 15 others, authorities said.
Rescue operations were continuing to search for people who might be trapped beneath the rubble at the factory near the port city of Izmir. Authorities had yet to confirm how many people remained missing, reports AFP.
Izmir Governor Suleyman Elban’s office initially reported that six people had been killed and 10 trapped following the explosion.
However, Elban later confirmed that 10 workers had died and 15 others were injured, state-run Anadolu news agency reported. Four of the injured were in critical condition.
Footage from the scene showed thick clouds of smoke billowing into the sky as flames engulfed a tall structure inside the Habas Demir Celik plant in Aliaga, about 60 kilometres north of Izmir.
Deniz Ulker, an eyewitness who was passing nearby when the explosion occurred, said the impact felt like an earthquake.
“It felt like the ground was shifting beneath us, I thought it was 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,” Ulker told Anadolu.
“It was like a bomb going off,” said Turan Ilbay, a truck driver working at the factory, speaking to the news agency.
DHA news agency reported that preliminary findings suggested the explosion occurred when an overhead crane collapsed into a large industrial furnace used in the liquid steel casting process.
Izmir Mayor Cemil Tugay said rescue teams were continuing efforts to remove the collapsed platform and recover those affected by the blast, all of whom were factory workers.
“Unfortunately, we have received preliminary information indicating a large number of deaths and injuries among people working at the factory. The exact number will become clear once the wreckage has been removed,” he said in a post on X shortly before the initial death toll was announced.
Meanwhile, two representatives of the leftist Aegean Workers’ Collective were arrested outside the hospital where the injured workers had been taken, a spokesman for the group told AFP.
The two were reportedly attempting to make a statement about workplace safety issues.
