Iran building collapse death toll rises to 11, many feared trapped
TEHRAN: Rescuers dug through debris on Tuesday of a building collapse in southwestern Iran that killed at least 11 people, fearful that many more could still be trapped beneath the rubble as authorities arrested the city’s mayor in a widening probe of the disaster.
The collapse onMonday of an under-construction 10-storey tower at the Metropol Building exposed its cement blocks and steel beams while also underscoring an ongoing crisis in Iranian construction projects that has seen other disasters in this earthquake-prone nation.
Video from the initial collapse on Monday showed thick dust rise over Abadan, a crucial oil-producing city in Khuzestan province, near Iran’s border with Iraq. The Metropol Building included two towers, one already built and the other under construction, though its bottom commercial floors had finished and already had tenants.
On Tuesday, an emergency official interviewed on state television suggested that some 50 people may have been inside of the building at the time of the collapse, including people moving into its basement floors. However, it wasn’t clear if that figure included those already pulled from the rubble. At least 39 people were injured, most of them lightly, officials earlier said.
Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi offered his condolences and appealed on the local authorities to get to the bottom of the case. Iran’s vice-president in charge of economic affairs, Mohsen Razaei, and interior minister Ahmad Vahidi visited the site.
Fighter jet crashes in Iran, killing two pilots
A fighter jet crashed in the central desert of Iran on Tuesday, killing both the aircraft’s pilots, local media reported.
The aircraft crashed at the Anarak training site near the central city of Isfahan, Iran’s semiofficial Tasnim news agency reported. The agency, which is close to the country’s military, did not identify the cause of the crash, and said authorities were investigating.
Thousands attend the funeral of slain colonel
Thousands attended the funeral on Tuesday of an Iranian Revolutionary Guards colonel who was shot dead in Tehran in what authorities have dubbed an “assassination” by agents of the United States and its allies.
Colonel Sayyad Khodai was killed on Sunday by a gunman on the back of a motorcycle as he sat in his car outside his home.