Death Toll in Abadan Metropol Collapse Rises to 14; Building Owner Dies in Incident

Following conflicting reports about the arrest of the Abadan Metropol tower owner, Iranian news agencies reported, citing the Khuzestan General Prosecutor, that he died in the building collapse incident.

Sections of the large tower, which was under construction, suddenly collapsed on the second day of Khordad.

According to Sadegh Jafari Chegeni, General and Revolutionary Prosecutor of Khuzestan Province, Hossein Abdolbaqi, the building owner, “was present at the site during the building collapse and died as a result of this incident.”

This came after Iranian news agencies, including the official Islamic Republic News Agency, reported hours after the incident on Monday that Mr. Abdolbaqi had been arrested by order of the special prosecutor.

This led to speculation on social media, including Twitter, about whether the report of the building owner’s death was false.

According to Mr. Jafari Chegeni, Hossein Abdolbaqi’s identity documents “were found in the clothing of one of the unidentifiable victims of the incident,” and thus “his identity was confirmed.”

Meanwhile, Ahmad Vahidi, Interior Minister of the Islamic Republic of Iran, announced on Tuesday evening: “At this moment we have a total of 14 deaths, we had 32 injured, of which 29 have been discharged and three others remain in hospitals.”

In response to a question about how long debris removal would take, he said: “Regarding debris removal, we cannot determine an exact timeframe now because the operation must be conducted with sensitivity and precision, and collapse of unstable structures is one of the dangers in the area.”

It is still unclear how many people are trapped under the rubble.

Mohammad Hossein Nami, Head of the National Crisis Management Organization, said in this regard: “We cannot yet announce statistics with high precision, because no one has statistics. We suspect that some may be trapped in the Metropol basement, and we are trying to reach the basement as soon as possible.”

This is while earlier, the head of the Red Crescent Relief and Rescue Organization told Jam-e Jam newspaper that rescue and relief operations on the floors of the Metropol building have been completed, but search and rescue operations by Red Crescent rescue and operational forces continue in the basement.

ISNA news agency wrote on Tuesday noon that “50 people” remain trapped under the building rubble.

Currently, all provincial and national officials, from the Chief Prosecutor to parliamentary representatives, have promised to deal with those “responsible” for the incident.

According to the General and Revolutionary Prosecutor of Khuzestan Province, “at this moment ten people among the main factors… in the implementation of the project… have been arrested, including the current mayor of Abadan and former mayors of Abadan. Also, a number of municipal personnel and supervisors who oversaw the implementation of this project have been arrested as violators and those involved in causing the incident.”

However, the main focus of protest and criticism following the Abadan building collapse has been directed at Mr. Abdolbaqi, who is said to have continued construction despite warnings, particularly from the Engineering Organization.

In this regard, on Tuesday, a copy of the site engineer’s report dated Dey month of year 99 (December 2020) was published on Twitter, indicating the engineer’s order to “stop work” pending review of the defects.

However, critics say that construction of this building continued without regard to such defects.

No official report on the cause of the incident has been released yet, but the head of the Engineering Order Organization cited the cause of the incident as the municipality’s disregard for the engineers’ supervisor reports and unauthorized and illegal construction of the three upper floors of the tower.

ISNA news agency reported in this regard: “Failure to obtain certain permits, poor construction quality, and lack of precise engineering of this tower are three main factors in the occurrence of this incident, which again points the finger of accusation at incompetent managers and managers who have evaded the law.”

On Tuesday, it was also reported that Ahmad Vahidi, Interior Minister, and Mohsen Rezaei, Deputy for Economic Affairs of Ibrahim Raisi, visited the Metropol building site in Abadan and held a crisis committee meeting at the site.

Source: Radio Farda