Four more bodies found after Tehran building collapse

The building collapsed after it was engulfed in a fire last week, the worst in Tehran since a 2005 blaze at a historic mosque killed 59.

Iranian firefighters remove debris of the Plasco building which collapsed on Thursday, in central Tehran. Scores of workers and dozens of trucks were searching the ruins days after the historic high-rise building in the heart of Tehran caught fire and later collapsed. Ebrahim Noroozi / AP Photo
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TEHRAN // Iran’s official news agency says search teams have found four more bodies of victims from last week’s deadly building collapse in Tehran.

IRNA’s report on Monday quotes Jalal Maleki, spokesman for the fire department, as saying the four bodies do not belong to any of the firefighters still missing and believed buried under the rubble.

So far, only six bodies have been retrieved. One injured firefighter died in hospital a day after Thursday’s collapse.

Authorities have yet to offer definitive casualty figures.

Iran’s state-run Press TV initially reported that 30 firefighters had been killed, without elaborating. Later, authorities said more than 20 firefighters had been killed.

The building collapsed after it was engulfed in a fire, the worst in Tehran since a 2005 blaze at a historic mosque killed 59.

The Plasco building was an iconic presence on the Tehran skyline.

The 17-story tower was built in the early 1960s by Iranian Jewish businessman Habib Elghanian and named after his plastics manufacturing company. It was the tallest building in the city at the time of its construction.

* Associated Press