25 missing in Iran building collapse
Print Edition
IRANIAN officials said yesterday 25 people were still unaccounted for after the collapse of a 17-story commercial building in Tehran on Thursday.
This is in addition to 20 firefighters who were killed in the disaster, state TV reported.
Iranian media carried photos of weeping relatives and dozens of people lined up to donate blood. The government declared today a day of national mourning.
“Police have received missing reports of 25 people. We urge people to report if any of their family members that worked in the Plasco building is missing,” a police official told TV.
Thick smoke and fire were hampering the search for the bodies of at least 20 firefighters under the rubble more than a day after the blaze began, TV reported.
Twenty firemen were killed as they evacuated people on Thursday from Iran’s oldest high-rise building, built in 1962, which housed hundreds of clothing warehouses as well as a shopping mall and other businesses.
“Our aim is to recover the bodies of these martyrs without causing any damage to their bodies,” head of Tehran’s crisis management center Esmail Najjar told TV.
Fire department officials have warned of the danger of more explosions, the semi-official Fars news agency reported.
“We are trying any way possible to reach them ... but very thick rising smoke is making the work very difficult,” Tehran’s emergency services head, Pir Hossein Kolivand, told state TV.
“We are dealing with fire, thick smoke and lack of oxygen.”
TV coverage showed dozens of firefighters and soldiers cutting through metal girders and concrete blocks to try to retrieve the bodies.
“These firefighters prevented a disaster. Hundreds of people could have been killed if they had not returned to the building,” Tehran Fire Department spokesman Jalal Maleki said. “The chance of rescuing anyone alive is almost zero.”
About 88 people, including firefighters, were injured when the Plasco building caught fire and collapsed. Only three were still in hospital. The building’s managers had ignored repeated warnings about poor safety standards and the building’s weak structure.
- About Us
- |
- Terms of Use
- |
-
RSS - |
- Privacy Policy
- |
- Contact Us
- |
- Shanghai Call Center: 962288
- |
- Tip-off hotline: 52920043
- 沪ICP证：沪ICP备05050403号-1
- |
- 互联网新闻信息服务许可证：31120180004
- |
- 网络视听许可证：0909346
- |
- 广播电视节目制作许可证：沪字第354号
- |
- 增值电信业务经营许可证：沪B2-20120012
Copyright © 1999- Shanghai Daily. All rights reserved.Preferably viewed with Internet Explorer 8 or newer browsers.
