At least 33 people perished during the drama. The owner of the building, close to many figures of the Islamic Republic of Iran, is the subject of strong criticism.
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The Jalalian family had just bought a small store in the street “AAB” (“water” in Persian), bordering the metropolis tower, located in the city of Abadan, in the southwest Iran. Since the beginning of May, Fouzi Jalalian, a father, had launched his trade in the sale of fruit and ice juice there. Monday, May 23, the metropolis tower collapsed, killing dozens of people, including Mr. Jalalian, his two sons and their cousin who worked that day in the store. Monday, May 30, the rescue teams withdrew two other bodies from the rubble, bringing the number of deaths in 33. In the tower under construction, part of which already housed offices, a laboratory and a pharmacy, worked a hundred of workers, most of which are always missing.
For months, this ten -story tower has been criticized: its owner, Hossein Abdolbaghi, close to many figures from the Islamic Republic of Iran, is accused of having disobeyed the safety rules. He had only obtained authorizations for the construction of six floors.
Since the drama, thousands of Iranians demonstrate in Abadan and other cities in the country to denounce corruption, as well as the late and insufficient response of the authorities to help the victims. In recent days, the police in civilian clothes (bassidji) and members of the revolution guards (the country’s ideological army) have used tear gas to disperse the demonstrators. According to testimonies, confirmed by videos published on social networks, the military did not hesitate to point their weapons on the protesters, sometimes pulling rubber bullets. The injured balance sheet remains, for the moment, impossible to determine.
“Dictator! Revolutionary guardian! For us, you are members of Daesh [the Islamic State organization]!”, Cried the demonstrators in Abadan, in a video published on Sunday, May 29. Other slogans aim for the first authority of the country, the supreme guide, Ali Khamenei.
a national mourning decreed six days after the disaster
“The first four days after the disaster – the most critical to save people under the rubble -, the rescue operations were catastrophic, laments Sami (a pseudonym adopted for security reasons), an engineer who s ‘is precipitated at the scene of the loss from the first day. The rescue teams had neither the appropriate equipment nor the experience. In addition, we had this terrible feeling that the number of police forces sent on site for Suppressing any dispute was ten times more important than that of rescuers. “
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