At least 17 people have died and 12 others were injured in an explosion at an iron and steel factory near the port city of Izmir in western Turkey, authorities said Monday. All of those killed and injured were workers at the Habaş Demir Çelik plant in Aliağa, one of the country's leading steel producers.
The local governor said the blast happened around midday after a crane carrying a replacement boiler collapsed, sending material falling into a furnace below. Footage from the scene showed a large fire inside the facility and a column of smoke rising into the air; eyewitnesses said the explosion shook the ground, with one person initially believing an earthquake had struck. In a statement, the company said the accident occurred during scheduled maintenance on one of the plant's electric arc furnaces.
President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan initially put the death toll at 16; Health Minister Kemal Memişoğlu later raised it to 17 after a critically injured worker died. Izmir Governor Süleyman Elban said some people were believed to still be trapped under rubble as search and rescue operations continued into the evening. At least five people have been arrested, the BBC's Turkish service reported, citing local media.
Speaking after a cabinet meeting, Erdoğan confirmed the deaths and said investigations were under way. Workplace accidents remain a persistent problem in Turkey's heavy industry; the independent Turkish Health and Safety Labor Watch has long tracked fatal incidents at steel and construction sites, which labour advocates attribute to lax enforcement and ageing equipment. The Habaş plant sits in Aliağa, a district that is also one of Turkey's main shipbreaking hubs and a centre of the country's steel industry.
The disaster adds to a string of recent industrial accidents in Turkey, including a deadly train collision and a rockslide in Cappadocia within the past two weeks. Authorities have not yet said whether the maintenance work on the furnace followed standard safety protocols, and the company has not detailed what, if any, additional precautions were in place before the boiler was lifted into position above the active furnace.
