Türkiye: At least 16 dead after explosion at steelworks near Izmir

At least 16 people were killed in an explosion at an iron and steel factory in the Turkish port town of Aliaga in Izmir province. In addition, 13 workers were injured, two of them seriously, said President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in Ankara. It was unclear whether other people were believed to be under the rubble. Rescue workers were on duty all day to search for those buried.

The explosion occurred late in the morning. According to the Izmir Governor's Office, the cause was a broken ceiling crane that fell into an industrial furnace during the casting process. Erdoğan said an investigation had been launched. It is also about the question “whether there was negligence”. The mayor of Izmir, Cemil Tugay, wrote on X that the exact number of deaths and injuries would only be clear after the rubble was cleared.

The violent explosion also caused a fire on the Habas Group's factory premises, about 60 kilometers north of Izmir. Eyewitnesses told state news agency Anadolu of a powerful explosion, a large cloud of smoke and fire rising from the factory. Videos showed the fire burning above a large hall and dust being spread around.

At the beginning of November, a 20-year-old worker died at a subcontractor of the factory operator in Aliaga, reports the opposition-affiliated newspaper “Cumhuriyet”. According to reports in the newspaper Evrensel, at least eleven workers have died while working in the factory in the past ten years. The opposition party DEM demanded that the causes of the explosion as well as "any negligence and any failures in supervision must be clarified in a completely transparent manner." Employee groups complain that there have long been safety problems at the plant. The Habas group did not want to comment on this when asked by the AFP news agency.

According to the independent Council for Worker Health and Safety ISIG, there were a total of around 2,100 fatal work accidents in Turkey last year. The iron and steel industry in the country is one of the sectors with an above-average risk of accidents.