A huge explosion at a steel factory in Western Turkey has left at least 17 people dead and 13 injure
The explosion occurred when a crane lifting a boiler collapsed into a large industrial furnace, causing a huge fire.
The blast happened at midday local time, when a crane lifting a replacement boiler collapsed and fell into a furnace used during the liquid steel casting process.
The fire at the HABAS plant in Aliaga, Izmir province, claimed at least 17 people's lives and also injured 13 people, two of them critically, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said in a televised address following a scheduled Cabinet meeting.
"The circumstances surrounding this tragic incident, which has deeply saddened our nation, including how and why it happened, whether there was any negligence and who bears responsibility, will be established," Erdogan said on television.
According to eye witnesses, the explosion "felt like an earthquake".
Izmir mayor Cemil Tugay said on X that rescue teams were "continuing their work to remove the collapsed platform" and that those affected were factory workers.
EU president Ursula van der Leyen has expressed her condolences
HABAS is a privately owned group and one of Turkey's top steel producers. The plant was established in 1987 and can produce 4.5 million tons of steel annually, according to the company’s website.
Workers' groups said there was a long record of safety issues at HABAS.
At least six workers were killed, with dozens more injured or trapped, following a major explosion on November 9 that took place around noon (local time) at steelmaker Habas’ plant in western Turkey, the Izmir governorate said in a press release.
The incident occurred at the industrial group’s primary manufacturing complex in the Bozkoy neighborhood on the Aliaga peninsula, an industrial heartland and key shipping hub located north of Izmir on the Aegean coast.
According to preliminary assessments released by the governorate, the blast was triggered during a liquid steel casting operation when an overhead crane failed and plummeted directly into an electric arc furnace.
Initial reports from regional officials confirmed three fatalities at the scene and 14 injuries with several victims transferred to nearby medical facilities in a critical condition. In a subsequent statement issued later in the afternoon, the governorate updated the death toll to six after one critically injured worker succumbed to injuries in hospital and search-and-rescue teams recovered two additional bodies from wreckage.
Emergency crews remain deployed at the site where search-and-rescue efforts continued to reach workers feared trapped beneath heavy industrial debris.
Habas, one of Turkey’s biggest steel producers, also operates extensive production facilities for industrial gases and heavy manufacturing. Its Aliaga complex serves as a crucial node in the country's metal export supply chain, producing long products and billets for international markets.
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