Turkey detains 6 over deadly steel blast that killed 17

Six people were arrested overnight after a huge blast at a steel plant near the western city of Izmir killed 17 workers, with grieving families waiting on Tuesday to receive their loved ones’ bodies for burial.

Onlookers said Monday’s massive explosion felt like “an earthquake” when it ripped through the Habas steel factory in Aliaga, a district 60km (37 miles) north of Izmir known for ship-breaking and heavy industry.

Police have so far detained six people in connection with the incident, with Energy Minister Alparslan Bayraktar warning “the number could rise”.

The deadly blast at one of Turkey’s top steel producers also left around a dozen people injured, at least one in critical condition.

Outside the forensic institute in Aliaga, bereaved family members said they had been waiting all night for confirmation that their loved ones had been identified so they could be laid to rest.

“We have been here since yesterday, we’re waiting for the DNA results. Since the bodies are in a condition that makes visual identification impossible, the identification process is carried out through DNA analysis,” said Turgut Dilek, saying his nephew Ozcan Efe was one of the dead.

Meanwhile, there was no word on the fate of a 40-year-old man who set himself alight outside the factory on Monday evening and was taken to hospital with severe injuries, IHA news agency said.

The man had worked for years as a truck driver at the factory, IHA said, without mention of earlier reports that his brother had died in the blast.

Workers’ groups have accused Habas of a checkered safety record, and President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Monday vowed that investigators would get to the bottom of what happened.

Turkey’s pro-Kurdish DEM party – which said late on Monday that “not a single party must go unpunished” at the factory – sent a delegation to visit the families and the injured on Tuesday led by its co-chair Tulay Hatimogullari.

Jailed Istanbul mayor Ekrem Imamoglu, Erdogan’s chief political rival, also demanded accountability.

“Workplace deaths are not fate. The causes of the accident must be fully established, and anyone who was negligent or at fault must be held accountable,” he wrote on social media.

Izmir governor Suleyman Elban said the explosion happened during “a boiler replacement operation”.

Contacted by AFP, Habas declined to respond to any questions.

On Monday, police detained two representatives of a workers’ collective outside Aliaga hospital while trying to make a statement about workplace safety issues, a spokesman said.

Workers’ groups have called a protest in Aliaga on Tuesday, saying: “STOP this hell of exploitation in which dozens of our comrades have died and hundreds were left disabled because of employers’ greed!”