The collapse of a building under construction in Iran’s southwestern city of Abadan leaves six dead and 29 injured. Eighty people are still unaccounted for and assumed to be under the rubble.
According to local Iranian state media, parts of the 10-story Metropol building collapsed but the cause of the collapse is still under investigation.
The owner and contractor of the building are in custody, according to the Abadan special prosecutor. The city of Abadan is in the Khuzestan province in the southwestern part of Iran bordering Iraq.
Thanks to photos and videos posted by Iranians on Twitter and other social media platforms, there is plenty of footage showing the building’s collapse and people running from the scene. While emergency teams are being dispatched from different cities to help with the rescue operations, many have pointed out that city officials lack the resources needed to do a complete cleanup.
Angry residents of Abadan took to the streets in the aftermath using slogans against city authorities and the Islamic Republic, blaming the regime for the collapse, deaths, and injuries, given the regime’s lax building codes.
Many Iranians today live in extremely poor housing conditions and have tried to get the attention of the Islamic regime to address the issue, but the gripe of the Iranian people is that the regime has mostly ignored domestic economic concerns and opts instead to focus its attention and resources toward terrorism.
While the head of Khuzestan’s judiciary ordered an investigation into the disaster and has arrested the owner and contractor of the building, many Iranians fear that unless the Islamic Republic enacts strict building codes, more buildings in areas like Abadan will collapse.
In response to the protests, Iran quickly deployed anti-riot forces against the peaceful protesters, fearing that the rallies could grow and augment the protests already occurring in places like Khuzestan and in other cities.
Islamic Republic security forces in the past few days have been using brutal forces to put down protests in various parts of the country, and now with the collapsed building in Abadan and protesters rallying and blaming the regime for its collapse, officials are making sure that this latest episode isn’t used as pretense for a a full-scale revolt.
Iranians are currently protesting the Islamic regime for its repression and the lack of economic and political rights that young and old Iranians lack in the country.
