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Tag: explosion

  • Türkiye Steel Blast Kills 18, Plant Chief Detained

    Türkiye Steel Blast Kills 18, Plant Chief Detained

    An explosion and fire tore through a steel plant in western Türkiye on Monday, killing 18 workers and injuring 12 others, in one of the country’s deadliest industrial accidents in recent years. The blast struck the HABAŞ Demir Çelik iron and steel plant in Aliağa, a heavily industrial district about 60 kilometres north of the port city of İzmir.

    According to the İzmir governor’s office, the explosion happened at around midday local time, when an overhead crane collapsed and fell into an electric arc furnace during the casting of liquid steel. The impact damaged a natural gas line and set off a powerful blast, followed by a fire that engulfed part of the plant. Footage posted online showed a huge cloud of thick smoke rising over the site, and witnesses said the explosion shook the ground so violently that some thought an earthquake had struck.

    The death toll climbed through Monday and Tuesday as rescue teams searched the wreckage. President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said after a cabinet meeting on Monday that 16 people had been killed and 13 injured. The health minister later said one of the critically injured workers had died in hospital, taking the toll to 17. On Tuesday, search teams recovered the body of another worker who had been missing since the blast, raising the toll to 18. The missing worker was identified in Turkish media reports as Güner Gökçe. Officials said 12 people were injured, one of them critically, and that the victims had died from severe burns.

    Prosecutors in the nearby town of Menemen opened a judicial investigation within hours of the blast and assigned four prosecutors to the case. Detention warrants were issued for 11 people, including the plant’s board chairman, Mehmet Rüştü Başaran, along with senior managers and technical staff. Mr Başaran was detained in Istanbul’s Kartal district on Tuesday and was expected to be taken to İzmir for questioning. A local court imposed a temporary ban on reporting about the incident while the investigation continues.

    The disaster has set off protests and a wider debate about workplace safety in Türkiye. Workers and residents gathered in Aliağa on Tuesday evening to demand answers, while labour groups pointed to figures showing that at least 1,736 workers died in work-related incidents across the country in the first nine months of 2026. The HABAŞ plant itself had seen two other fatal incidents in recent weeks: a 55-year-old worker died on 21 October after falling about eight metres, and a 20-year-old worker was killed on 5 November when a heavy vehicle tyre exploded as it was being inflated.

    The labour minister said earlier inspections had found no serious safety problems at the plant and that inspectors would now examine whether negligence played a part. HABAŞ said the explosion happened during scheduled maintenance on one of its electric arc furnaces and that its safety management system was regularly inspected. The company is one of Türkiye’s largest steel producers, and its Aliağa plant produces about 4.5 million tonnes of steel a year.

  • Backpack Bomb Kills Police Officer in Spain

    Backpack Bomb Kills Police Officer in Spain

    A Spanish police officer was killed and a bomb disposal expert was seriously injured on Tuesday when an explosive device hidden in a backpack went off in the northern city of Oviedo, turning a routine call about a neighbourhood shooting into a deadly emergency.

    Police were called to the Villafria district at around 7:30 in the morning after reports of a dispute between neighbours in which shots had been fired. When officers arrived at a building on Rafael Urrusti Street, they found a 17-year-old girl with gunshot wounds. She was taken to the Central University Hospital of Asturias and doctors said she was out of danger.

    Inside the entrance of the same building, officers spotted a suspicious backpack. Fearing it could contain explosives, they called in the National Police bomb disposal unit, known as TEDAX, to examine it.

    Blast as officers examined the bag

    The device exploded at about 8:50 in the morning while a sub-inspector from the police canine unit was inspecting the backpack. The officer, named by the force only as Juan Jose, was killed at the scene. A TEDAX bomb disposal officer standing nearby was caught in the blast and suffered serious injuries, including the loss of a leg, according to Spanish media reports. Police said his condition was critical.

    Spain’s National Police paid tribute to the dead officer in a statement on social media, saying the force was devastated by the loss of its colleague. The city’s mayor, Alfredo Canteli, travelled to the scene as a large police operation was launched in the area.

    Police said the man suspected of shooting the girl and leaving the explosive device had fled and was still at large. A wide search was under way across the neighbourhood, with streets around the building cordoned off while investigators examined the scene.

    According to police sources quoted by Spanish media, the suspect has a long record of ordinary criminal offences and a terrorist motive has been ruled out for now. Investigators are still working to establish whether the shooting and the bomb were connected, or whether they were two separate incidents that happened to unfold at the same place.

    The blast sent shockwaves through the quiet residential area, where residents had woken to the sound of gunfire earlier in the morning. Local media reported that neighbours heard several shots before emergency services arrived, and the explosion hours later brought a heavy police presence to streets that are normally calm.

  • 17 Killed as Steel Plant Blast Rocks Western Turkey

    17 Killed as Steel Plant Blast Rocks Western Turkey

    An explosion tore through a steel plant in western Turkey on Monday, killing 17 workers and injuring 13 others in one of the country’s deadliest industrial accidents in recent years.

    The blast struck around midday at the HABAS Demir Celik plant in Aliaga, about 60 kilometres north of the port city of Izmir, during a boiler replacement operation. According to the Izmir governor’s office, an overhead crane broke loose and fell into a large electric arc furnace used in the liquid steel casting process.

    President Recep Tayyip Erdogan confirmed the deaths after a cabinet meeting, initially putting the toll at 16, before Health Minister Kemal Memisoglu later raised it to 17 after one of the critically injured workers died in hospital. Two of the injured remain in critical condition.

    Workers at the site described the moment of the explosion. Yasin Cetiner, a 52-year-old worker, told AFP that the crane rope had snapped, sending about 120 tonnes of molten steel crashing onto the furnace. Because the furnace contains water-cooled panels, the liquid steel triggered a hydrogen explosion on contact with the water below. “If the liquid steel falls on water, and it’s 1,800 degrees, a massive explosion happens,” he said.

    Another eyewitness, Deniz Ulker, said the blast felt like an earthquake, with thick smoke pouring from the factory chimney and giant flames visible across the site. Footage from the area showed a huge cloud of smoke rising into the sky as flames engulfed a tall structure inside the plant.

    Erdogan said the circumstances of the incident would be established, including how and why it happened, whether there was negligence and who bore responsibility. Judicial and administrative investigations have been launched, and officials said search and rescue teams were still working at the site.

    HABAS is a privately owned group and one of Turkey’s largest steel producers. The Aliaga plant sits in a major port and shipbreaking hub, and the explosion has renewed attention on workplace safety at the site, which has seen previous fatal accidents.