TURKEY

Fireworks spark deadly Istanbul blast

Thursday, January 31, 2008

At least 19 people were killed and 69 were injured on Thursday when an explosion ripped through an Istanbul building that housed workshops including an illegal fireworks factory.

  
A powerful explosion sparked by an accident at an unlicenced fireworks plant killed at least 19 people, injured more than 70 and caused massive destruction Thursday at an industrial area in Istanbul, officials said.
  
"The death toll has reached 19," Istanbul Governor Muammer Guler said as he visited the wounded in a nearby hospital, the Anatolia news agency reported.
  
Four of the 74 people hospitalised after the blast are in serious condition, he said.
  
The disaster in the industrial zone of Davutpasa, on the city's European shore, appeared to result from a chain reaction that started with a small explosion and a fire in a clandestine fireworks plant.
  
The operation was on the fourth floor of a five-storey building, Guler told reporters at the scene earlier.
  
The accident sparked a powerful explosion, probably in the furnace of a neighbouring textile manufacturer in the building that housed several small industries, including a denim bleacher and paint and yarn manufacturers.
  
The explosion caused the building to cave in, destroying almost its entire facade.
  
The windows of neighbouring buildings were shattered, large chunks of concrete smashed cars parked below and rubble and dust littered the street.
  
Guler said eight of the dead were onlookers watching the first fire from a nearby parking lot when the second, bigger explosion followed.
  
"The walls of the building began to swell from the pressure inside, then there was a big bang and the building collapsed," Ahmet Unal, a turner at a nearby workshop, told Anatolia.
  
"Several people were blown out with the impact of the blast and smashed into the walls of neighbouring buildings," he said.
  
"The entire neighbourhood shook," a witness who was not indentified told the NTV news channel as he wiped blood from his face.
  
Six bodies were pulled from under the debris of the building and another three were killed in the street, Guler said, ruling out the possibility of a terrorist attack.
  
Rescuers aided by sniffer dogs, sifted through the rubble under which two people were believed trapped, NTV reported.
  
Local business owners blamed the accident on negligence by the authorities, saying they failed to crack down on clandestine businesses and enforce work safety rules.
  
"Everything except bombs is being freely manufactured here," a shoe-maker said.
  
Murat Aydin, mayor of the Zeytuinburnu district where Davutpasa is located, said the authorities were unaware that a fireworks shop was among the building's tenants, Anatolia reported.
  
The denim bleachers had continued to operate despite being shut down by the authorities earlier for failing to meet safety norms, he said.
  
Thursday's blast was the third deadly fireworks incident in as many years in Turkey.
  
Six people were killed in a similar explosion in Istanbul in 2005, and another two in the central city of Karaman the following year.
  
Respect for safety regulations is often minimal and accidents are frequent at many smaller work places in Turkey.

There are no reactions so far.

Be the first user to react to this article.

You will only have to select the button <<REACT>> and fill the indicated fields.