At least 9 detained protesting mobile phone ban at blast-hit Habas steel plant in Turkey

Résumé détaillé

We want to live with dignity,' the protesters shouted outside the factory, located in Aliaga, a district known for shipbreaking and heavy industry near Izmir ...

Turkey's security forces on Friday detained at least nine people protesting a ban on bringing mobile phones into a steel plant that was hit by a deadly explosion this week, a workers' collective said.

Workers arriving for their morning shift at the Habas steel factory were told to leave their mobile phones at a security checkpoint, prompting them to gather at the facility's entrance in protest, according to a spokesman for the Aegean Workers' Collective.

"We want to live with dignity," the protesters shouted outside the factory, located in Aliaga, a district known for shipbreaking and heavy industry near the western port city of Izmir.

The factory was rocked by a major explosion on Monday that killed 19 people, including "a missing person who was presumed dead", Ali Ekber Tali of the Turkish Metal Workers' Union told AFP.

The mobile phone ban at the plant was introduced by Habas chairman Mehmet Rustu Basaran, who was placed under house arrest as part of an investigation into Monday's explosion, said Oktay Turk, spokesman for the Aegean Workers' Collective.

"At least nine people were detained" protesting the ban, Turk told AFP, adding that he was among those taken into custody. The Collective alleged the phone ban was aimed at preventing workers from sharing images from inside the plant.

An AFP photographer at the scene said tensions were high, with security forces deployed around the factory and blocking some roads leading to the site.

The blast occurred during a boiler replacement operation when an overhead crane collapsed, dropping a container holding 120 tonnes of molten steel onto an industrial furnace, officials and a factory employee said.

Forensic investigators found the victims had died from burns, some so severe that DNA tests had to be conducted to identify them.

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