Iran detains city mayor after building collapse kills 11

Ten-storey structure in Abadan partly crumbled on Monday, trapping at least 80 people

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Iranian authorities investigating a building collapse that killed at least 11 people have detained Abadan Mayor Hossein Hamidpour and nine others, state media reported.

The 10-storey residential and commercial building in Abadan partly collapsed on Monday, trapping at least 80 people under the rubble, according to state TV.

“Ten people who are the main elements implicated in this incident, including the current and former Abadan mayors, a number of municipality employees and those who supervised this project have been detained and the investigation continues,” local prosecutor Sadeq Jafari Chegeni told Iran state TV on Tuesday.

Authorities said other sections of the building, which is on Amir Kabir Street, may collapse and urged people not to gather near the site.

Rescuers dug through debris on Tuesday, with Mojtaba Khaledi, spokesman for the state emergency services, telling TV that about 50 people may still be trapped under the rubble.

People lined up at the local blood bank to make donations for the injured.

Video footage taken at the scene showed bloodied and dust-covered casualties being removed from the area as rescue workers sifted through the rubble and mangled steel. Several cars also appeared to have been crushed.

The cause of the collapse, which occurred during a sandstorm, is still unclear but the owner of the building and the project manager of the construction company that built it have been arrested.

No major earthquake was recorded on Monday near Abadan, about 660 kilometres south-west of Tehran.

Politicians opened a separate parliamentary inquiry into the case on Tuesday, trying to determine why the building collapsed.

A local journalist in Abadan had repeatedly raised concerns about the building’s construction, beginning from last year, publishing images that he said showed sagging floors at the first tower. He also alleged that the building permits process was riddled with corruption.

Abadan became the focus of development by the British beginning in 1909 as they built what became the world’s largest oil refinery at the time. Iran later nationalised its oil industry in the decades before the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

The city and the surrounding region were destroyed during Iraq’s long war against Iran in the 1980s. In the years since, private and state-linked projects rapidly came up as the area was rebuilt, amid complaints of shoddy construction practices.

The collapse reminded many of the 2017 fire and collapse of the Plasco building in Tehran that killed 26 people.

Abadan has had its share of historic disasters as well. In 1978, an intentionally set fire at Cinema Rex in the city 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.