Explosion rips through steel plant in Turkey, killing at least 17

Six people were killed and around a dozen injured on Monday when an explosion ripped through an iron and steel factory near Turkey’s western resort city of Izmir, the governor’s office said.

The governor’s office initially gave a toll of three dead, 14 injured and 10 trapped under the rubble, but gave an update saying one of the injured had died along with two of those pulled from the rubble, raising the toll to six.

Footage posted from the scene showed a huge cloud of thick smoke pouring into the blue sky as flames appeared to engulf a tall structure within the Habas Demir Celik plant in Aliaga, some 60km (35 miles) north of Izmir.

Eyewitness Deniz Ulker who was passing nearby at the time said it 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 the Anadolu state news agency.

“It was like a bomb going off,” said Turan Ilbay, who works as a truck driver at the factory and also spoke to Anadolu.

The DHA news agency said initial findings suggested the blast occurred when an overhead crane collapsed into a large industrial furnace used during the liquid steel casting process.

Izmir Mayor Cemil Tugay said rescue teams were “continuing their work to remove the collapsed platform” and that those affected 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 social media shortly before the toll was updated to six dead.