“I thought that it was an earthquake at first,” said Ahmad, a shop owner in Abadan, Iran. Then he found out that a building under construction had collapsed just above his head. The lower floor of the building was completed, and people were shopping when the event occurred on this busy commercial street. The final count was less than feared, but still tragic with ten killed and dozens injured. Rescue teams worked through the night to pull out dozens still trapped in the ten-story Metropol office block of Abadan.

This building collapse is not the first one to occur in the city. In 2017, at least 20 people were killed, including firefighters when the 17-story Plasco Building in Tehran caught fire and then collapsed. Evidently, memories run deep because the Metropol’s owner and the building contractor were both arrested, suspected of building irregularities and perhaps shoddy materials and workmanship. Originally it was thought that at least 80 were trapped, so it was a relief to find that only 10 were killed when people were shopping on the finished first floor.

Source:

Ten dead, dozens saved after 10-story building collapses in Iran – reports