Anger as 17 killed in Turkey steel factory blast

An explosion at the HABAS steel factory in western Turkey has killed 17 people, with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan promising to investigate the incident. The blast occurred around midday at the factory, about 60 kilometres north of the port city of Izmir. According to Erdogan, 16 people lost their lives in the explosion, while 13 others were receiving medical treatment, two of whom were in critical condition.

The explosion occurred during a boiler replacement operation when an overhead crane collapsed into a large industrial furnace used during the liquid steel casting process, Izmir governor Suleyman Elban said. Footage from the site showed a huge cloud of thick smoke pouring into the sky as flames appeared to engulf a tall structure within the HABAS Demir Celik plant in Aliaga.

Eyewitness Deniz Ulker described the explosion as feeling like an "earthquake". She said there was a massive explosion, followed by thick smoke coming from the chimney and giant flames. Ulker also described the roof of the factory as "literally flowing like water as it burned".

The HABAS conglomerate, a privately owned company and one of Turkey's top steel producers, has a chequered safety record, according to workers' groups. Turkey's pro-Kurdish DEM party said those responsible for the incident must be brought to justice, indicating that several workers had lost their lives at the site earlier in the year due to negligence.

Health Minister Kemal Memisoglu later updated the death toll to 17 after one of those in critical condition succumbed to his injuries. The Labour Party, a small Marxist faction, said it was the third time in three weeks that workers had lost their lives at HABAS.

Angry workers called for a protest over work safety issues at a square in Aliaga on Tuesday evening under the banner: "Enough is enough, we do not want to die!" The protest was called in response to the HABAS management's "blind greed for profit", which resulted in a major disaster, according to Oktay Turk, spokesman for the Aegean Workers' Collective.

Two representatives of the leftist Aegean Workers' Collective were arrested outside the hospital while trying to make a statement about workplace safety issues. The atmosphere outside both the hospital and the factory was very tense, with anti-riot police deployed outside Aliaga hospital where the wounded were being treated.

Key points

• The explosion occurred during a boiler replacement operation when an overhead crane collapsed into a large industrial furnace.
• The HABAS conglomerate has a chequered safety record, according to workers' groups.
• Angry workers called for a protest over work safety issues at a square in Aliaga on Tuesday evening.