Death toll from Iran building collapse rises to 41

By Mustafa Melih Ahishali

ISTANBUL (AA) – Rescuers retrieved three more bodies from the rubble of a collapsed building in Iran’s southwestern Khuzestan province on Monday, bringing the death toll to 41.

It remains unclear how many people were buried in the debris after a 10-story unfinished business complex collapsed in the city of Abadan on May 23.

Authorities have so far arrested 13 people, including Hossein Hamidpour, the city’s former mayor who resigned last Friday, as part of an investigation, according to the provincial Prosecutor General’s Office.

Ehsan Abbaspour, governor of Khuzestan, told Iranian state television that the victims pulled out from the rubble were identified by their next of kin.

The death toll has now risen to 41, he confirmed.

Efforts are underway to rescue those still trapped under the collapsed building, according to a local Red Crescent official.

However, the victims’ chances of survival are extremely slim.

More than 100 people were said to have been inside the Metropol Building on the busy Amiri Street when it collapsed.

Last Tuesday, Mohammad Hassan Nami, head of Iran’s Crisis Management Organization, told the media that they were evacuating all nearby buildings at risk of collapse, while rescue teams tried to access the basement of the collapsed structure by digging tunnels.

*Writing by Merve Berker in Ankara