Explosion at steel plant in western Turkey leaves 6 dead and 8 missing

ISTANBUL (AP) — A huge explosion and fire at an iron and steelworks in western Turkey left six people dead Monday as rescuers searched for eight missing workers, officials said.

The fire at the HABAS plant in Aliaga, Izmir province, also injured 13 people, two of them critically, the provincial governor’s office said in a statement that updated an earlier announcement to reflect the deaths of one person in a hospital and two other people found under the debris.

Search and rescue efforts were underway to reach the eight people trapped under the rubble, it said.

Izmir Mayor Cemil Tugay said that the exact number of casualties would only be known once the debris is cleared.

Broadcaster NTV showed images of a large fire inside the facility and a tall column of smoke rising.

“The ground shook. It was very intense,” witness Nuri Ali Ulker was quoted as saying by the state-run Anadolu news agency.

Another witness, Deniz Ulker, said that the explosion “felt like the earth’s crust was shifting beneath us. I thought it was an earthquake,” according to Anadolu.

Interior Minister Mustafa Ciftci said that emergency teams fought the blaze while searching for casualties.

“Our injured compatriots have been taken to hospitals and their health is being closely monitored,” he posted on social media.

The governor’s office said that the blast happened around noon (0900 GMT) when an overhead crane toppled into a furnace during the casting of liquid steel. It said that an investigation had been launched.

Aliaga has a large port and is known for shipbreaking, which critics say has caused significant environmental damage and has led to calls to remove its shipbreaking yard from the European Union’s list of ship recycling facilities.

The disaster came as world leaders and environmental activists gathered in Antalya, on Turkey’s Mediterranean coast, for talks on curbing climate change .

The HABAS plant was established in 1987 and can produce 4.5 million tons of steel annually, according to the company’s website.