Crowd confronts cleric over Iran tower collapse that killed 33

Demonstration directly challenges Iranian government’s response to the disaster

People stand at the site where a 10-storey building collapsed in the city of Abadan, Iran. EPA

There are fears the death toll could rise as dozens of people are still believed to be trapped under the rubble. EPA

Building collapses are not uncommon in Iran. Fars News Agency / AP

People gather at the site where the 10-storey building collapsed. Tasnim News / AFP

The cause of the collapse, which occurred during a sandstorm, is still unclear. Tasnim News / AFP

The owner of the building and the project manager of the construction company that built it were arrested. Fars News Agency / AP

People gather at the site of the building collapse. Tasnim News / AFP

Protesters angry over a building collapse in southwestern Iran that killed at least 34 people and injured 37 others shouted down an emissary sent by supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, sparking a crackdown in which riot police clubbed demonstrators and fired tear gas, according to online videos analysed on Monday.

The demonstration directly challenged the Iranian government’s response to the disaster a week ago, as pressure grows in the Islamic Republic over rising food prices and other economic woes amid the unravelling of its nuclear deal with world powers.

Some chanted slogans against Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and some called the leader a dictator.

"They're lying that it's America; our enemy is right here," they shout. That is a common slogan during anti-government protests in Iran.

While the protests so far still appear to be leaderless, even Arab tribes in the region seemed to join them on Sunday, raising the risk of the unrest intensifying. Already, tensions between Tehran and the West have spiked after Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard on Friday seized two Greek oil tankers.

Rescue crews search for survivors following the building collapse. Reuters

Ayatollah Mohsen Heidari AleKasir tried to address hundreds of mourners near the site of the 10-storey Metropol Building on Sunday, but they booed and shouted.

Surrounded by bodyguards, the ayatollah, in his 60s, tried to continue but couldn’t.

“What’s happening?” the cleric stage-whispered to a bodyguard.

The cleric then tried to address the crowd again: “My dears, please keep calm, as a sign of respect to Abadan, its martyrs and the dear (victims) the whole Iranian nation is mourning tonight.”

The crowd responded by shouting: “Shameless!”

A live broadcast of the event on state television then cut out. Demonstrators later chanted: “I will kill; I will kill the one who killed my brother!”

The Tehran-based daily newspaper Hamshahri and the semiofficial Fars news agency said the protesters attacked the platform where state TV had set up its camera, cutting off its broadcast.

Police ordered the crowd not to chant slogans against the Islamic Republic and then ordered them to leave, calling their rally illegal.

A video later showed officers confronting and clubbing demonstrators as clouds of tear gas rose. At least one officer fired what appeared to be a shotgun, although it wasn’t clear if it was live fire or so-called “beanbag” rounds designed to stun.

It is not known if anyone was injured or if police made any arrests.

The details in the videos corresponded to known features of Abadan, some 660 kilometres southwest of the capital, Tehran. Foreign-based Farsi-language television channels described tear gas and other shots being fired.

Independent newsgathering remains extremely difficult in Iran. During unrest, Iran has disrupted internet and telephone communications to affected areas, while also limiting the movement of journalists. Reporters Without Borders describes the Islamic Republic as the third-worst country in the world to be a journalist — behind only North Korea and Eritrea.

Following the tower collapse in Abadan on May 23, authorities have acknowledged the building’s owner and corrupt government officials had allowed construction to continue at the Metropol Building despite concerns over its shoddy workmanship. The city’s mayor is among 13 people arrested as part of a broad investigation into the disaster.

Rescue teams pulled four more bodies from the rubble on Monday, bringing the death toll to 33, according to the state-run IRNA news agency. Authorities fear more people could be trapped.

The collapse has raised questions about the safety of similar buildings and underscored an ongoing crisis in Iranian construction projects. The collapse reminded many of the 2017 fire and collapse of the iconic Plasco building in Tehran that killed 26 people.

In Tehran, the city’s emergency department said 129 high-rise buildings in the capital remained “unsafe,” based on a survey in 2017. The country’s prosecutor general, Mohammad Javad Motazeri, has promised to address the issue immediately.

Abadan has seen past disasters. In 1978, an intentionally set fire at Cinema Rex — just a few blocks from the collapsed building in modern Abadan — killed hundreds. Anger over the blaze triggered unrest across Iran’s oil-rich regions and helped lead to the Islamic Revolution that toppled Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi.

Abadan, in Iran’s oil-rich Khuzestan province, is home to Iran’s Arab minority, who long have complained about being treated as second-class citizens in the Persian nation. Arab separatists in the region have attacked pipelines and security forces in the past. Videos and Hamshahri noted that two tribes had come into the city to support the protests.