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Ahistoric high-rise in the heart of Tehran caught fire and collapsed Thursday in a giant cloud of smoke, killing dozens of firefighters who were battling the blaze, Iranian news media reported.

At least 50 firefighters were killed in the collapse of the 17-story Plasco Building, a symbol of modernity that was constructed in the early 1960s, the official Islamic Republic News Agency said.

Local news media quoted emergency operations officials as saying at least 70 people were believed trapped under the wreckage. More than two dozen had been hospitalized.

Rescue dogs were helping the hunt for survivors as police cordoned off several blocks in an area populated with embassies just north of the capitals main bazaar.

President Hassan Rouhani issued a statement asking the Interior Ministry to investigate the cause of the fire, which broke out on the top floors shortly after 8 a.m. while garment merchants were doing business and tour guides were leading visitors through the building.

Videos on television and social media captured the shock of Iranians at the scene, some bursting into tears, others holding their heads.

This landmark of modernity is gone, said Siavash Ramesh, a tour guide who was working in the building Thursday morning.

The building was a familiar and beloved part of the low-slung capitals scattered skyline, erected during a decade of rapid economic growth under Irans former monarchy and attached to a large shopping mall.

A rectangular block that seemed drab by todays standards, it was for a generation of Iranians the tallest and most magnificent high-rise in the country.

It also stood out for its builder: a Jewish plastics tycoon, Habib Elghanian, who was executed in the months after the 1979 Islamic Revolution. Irans ruling mullahs accused Elghanian, the head of a prominent association of Jewish Iranians, of spying for Israel, and that triggered an exodus of Jews from the country.

For some Iranians, the buildings collapse was akin to losing a family member.

Our landmark monument is gone, right before our eyes, said Nasrin Sadvand, a Tehran resident who was near the site.

Others saw deeper meaning in the buildings collapse. Ramesh, the tour guide, recalled the story of how a political activist who opposed the ruling theocracy was allegedly dropped from the top of the building by security agents for refusing to disclose sensitive information.

The building took revenge from the people who misused it, Ramesh said.

Special correspondent Mostaghim reported from Tehran and staff writer Bengali from Mumbai, India

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UPDATES:

3:55 a.m.: Updated with Times reporting and a death toll of 50 firefighters.

2:35 a.m.: Updated with 75 injured.

1:35 a.m.: Updated with state-run media reporting 30 deaths.

12:55 a.m.: Updated with details and background on the tower.

This article was first published at 12:40 a.m.

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50 firefighters killed in Iran as burning high-rise collapses - Los Angeles Times

Iranian firefighters help their colleague during debris removal of the Plasco building which caught fire and collapsed on Thursday, in central Tehran, Iran, Friday, Jan. 20, 2017. Scores of workers and dozens of trucks were searching the ruins Friday, a day after a historic high-rise building in the heart of Tehran caught fire and later collapsed. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi)

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) Rescue teams in the Iranian capital worked through the night and into the day Friday to try and reach firefighters and other victims believed to be under the rubble of a commercial building that collapsed in Tehran the previous day.

Iranian officials have yet to offer definitive casualty figures for the disaster. Iran's state-run Press TV reported on Thursday that 30 firefighters had been killed, without elaborating.

Later Thursday, Tehran Mayor Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf said more than 20 firefighters had been killed and promised further updates. Ghalibaf also said there were no civilians inside the building at the time of the collapse, though witnesses said people had slipped through a police cordon to try and save their valuables inside the burning building.

On Friday, authorities said an injured firefighter died at a local hospital. No survivors or bodies have been pulled out of the rubble so far.

The disaster had stunned many Iranians and triggered an outpouring of grief across Tehran.

Iran's government announced that Saturday would be a day of mourning for the nation following the incident that "claimed lives of several people and brave firefighters," according to a statement carried by the official IRNA news agency.

Jalal Maleki, spokesman of the Tehran Fire Department, told state TV that along with firefighters who are believed to be under the rubble, "we assume that there are some other people."

Iranian media said Behnam Mirzakhani, one of the firefighters hospitalized in Tehran, died Friday from his injuries sustained in the building's collapse.

A total of 84 people had been reported injured, but only five remained hospitalized, said Pirhossein Kolivand, head of the country's emergency department.

The disaster at the 17-story Plasco building, inadvertently shown live on state television that was reporting from the site after the building was engulfed in a fire on Thursday morning, came after authorities said they repeatedly warned tenants about blocking stairwells with fabric from cramped garment workshops on its upper floors.

The high-rise was home to more than 500 garment and clothing shops, their offices and warehouses, and was full of chemical materials, authorities said. The blaze and the subsequent collapse stunned the city and firefighters and others openly wept on the streets, holding each other for support. Dozens of people lined up to donate blood.

Smoke was still seen rising occasionally from the ruins on Friday.

"The smoke is a sign of continuation of the fire under the rubble," Saeed Sharifizadegan, head of Tehran's fire department.

Workers were digging several tunnels from buildings next door to reach the basement of the collapsed building. Teams of rescue dogs were also at the site.

Amir Mohammadi, a retired teacher who lives in a nearby neighborhood, said he couldn't sleep the entire night out of worry.

"How can I go to bed, all those who trapped are like my sons," he said. "Maybe some of them were my students."

Ghasem Rahmani, 63, who owned a shop in the building, stood at Lalehzar junction, a nearby intersection. "Until the collapse I was worrying about my belongings," he said. "Now I am worrying about our sons there."

Authorities described the building, built more than five decades ago, as having a weak structure. Thursday's fire was the worst in Tehran since a 2005 blaze at a historic mosque killed 59 worshippers and injured nearly 200 others.

By nightfall Friday, scores of Iranians held candlelit vigils outside many Tehran fire stations and in other cities and towns across Iran.

___

Associated Press writer Jon Gambrell in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, contributed to this report.

Originally posted here:
Many still missing at site of deadly Iran building collapse - Colorado Springs Gazette

Forbes

Iran Tries To Sabotage Its Own Economy To Spite The West Forbes In this Nov. 2, 2013 file photo, a veiled Iranian woman walks past a mural depicting the late revolutionary founder Ayatollah Khomeini, and national Iranian flag, painted on the wall of the former U.S. Embassy, in Tehran, Iran. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi).

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Iran Tries To Sabotage Its Own Economy To Spite The West - Forbes

Danish police have arrested six people who had earlier scaled the walls of the Iranian Embassy in Copenhagen, in an attack that elicited a strong protest from Tehran.

The arrests were made on Thursday after the six, described as four Iranian expatriates seeking asylum in Sweden and two others holding Swedish residency, violated the Iranian diplomatic premises in the Danish capital.

The incident saw the invaders entering the missions courtyard earlier in the day, putting up profane placards and forcing down the Iranian national flag from the flagstaff.

Copenhagen police superintendent Henrik Stormer said the detainees were being held in police custody.

Following the incident, Danish Ambassador to Tehran Danny Annan was summoned to the Iranian Foreign Ministry, being notified of the Islamic Republics protest over the attack.

Ministry spokesman Bahram Qassemi said Tehran had roundly criticized the attack by the anti-revolutionary elements, calling it in contravention of international regulations and demanding that the Danish government expeditiously address the affair.

This is not the first time Irans diplomatic premises are violated abroad.

Members of the anti-Iran terrorist Mujahedin-e Khalq Organization (MKO) have on many occasions trespassed on Iranian missions abroad.

The MKO, the most hated terrorist group among the Iranians, has carried out numerous terrorist attacks against Iranian civilians and government officials over the past three decades.

Out of the nearly 17,000 Iranians killed in terrorist assaults since the victory of Irans 1979 Islamic Revolution, about 12,000 have fallen victim to the MKOs acts of terror.

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Denmark arrests six over attack on Iran embassy in Copenhagen - Press TV

Hassan Rouhani, Iran's president, confirmed that ten countries will attempt to smooth over the differences between Iran and Saudi Arabia. Rohani stated that he wanted to see a change in Saudi Arabia's policies toward the region. Saudi Arabia has saidthe same thing about Iran.If the two countries break the ice, however, the result could be a new, more positive, chapter for the Middle East

HusseinRorian, an expert on Iranian affairs, told DW that the Iranian position "has been repeated bythe Secretary of the Supreme National Council Ali Shamani, President of the Republic Ali Rohani, and just recently Foreign Minister Javad Zarif.

According to HusseinRorian, Iran's consistent stance on Saudi Arabia isn't due to individual politicians, but rather the hardline nature of Iran's Republic as a whole, and that's why everyone is repeating the same message.

A shift in tone?

Iraq and Kuwait, two countries who themselves fought in the past, could be some of themediators between Saudi Arabia and Iran.

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani replied "There are many countries that want to help us settle our differences with Saudi Arabia. Iraq and Kuwait were mentioned, but there are also 8 to 10 other countries willing to help he said.

He also said that Iran does not want to exclude Saudi Arabia from the politics of the region and will even provide economic assistance to Riyadh but only "if they made the right decision. By this he means Saudi Arabia ending its military intervention in Yemen and attacking the Houthi rebels, which Iran backs. He also is calling foran end to Saudi Arabia meddling in the affairs ofBahrain.

Adel al-Jubeir - Saudi Arabia's Minister of Foreign Affairs

An Iranian official also confirmed that Saudi Arabia was willing to negotiate arrangements for the Hajj pilgrimage.

The Hajj is a pilgrimage to Mecca inSaudi Arabia, that all Muslims must undertake. Currently Iranians are banned from it, however, due to the Saudi-Iranian conflict.

Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir responded to the Iranian statements by saying that Riyadh's relationship with Tehranis tense, and that it is in fact Iran that should stop its "hostile actions in the region.

DW spoke with Saudi political analyst Muhammad Abdullah Al-Zulfa to get the Saudi side of the story. "Riyadh's terms are clear in this regard he told DW."Iran should refrain from interfering in internal affairs of countries in the region. Al-Zulfa, a former member of Saudi Arabia's Shura Council, said that "Saudi Arabia would welcome any rapprochement from the Iranian side.

Stark differences

After a stampede in Mecca killed hundreds of mostly Iranian Hajj pilgrims in 2015, Iran said that the Saudi Arabians were incompetent and boycotted the Hajj to Saudi Arabia that year. At the beginning of 2016, ties worsened again when Shia cleric Nimr al-Nimr was executed by Saudi Arabia.

Saudi Arabia's solution to prevent stampedes during the Hajj has been using electronic bracelets on participants to monitor the crowds and prevent congestion. The Saudi Arabians coordinate with other countries to receive a certain number of pilgrims to prevent overcrowding.

The Hajj pilgrimage is frequently a point of contention between Iran and Saudi Arabia

Trump administration

Hassan Rorian, theIranian affairs expert, told DW that the incoming Trump administration, "doesn't align with either Iranian or Saudi interests.

He also said that "Saudi Arabia is losing a war of attrition in Yemen against the Houthi rebels. They have inflamed the situation in Bahrain and suppressed the will of the people. They tried to senda representative to meet Trump, but were rejected. He mentioned that they should cooperate with Saudi Arabia to end this impasse. The two countries could find mutual ground over Trump's discontent withtheir policies

Iranian Foreign Minister Zarif concluded that there should be no reason for hostility between the two states. He said they can "work together to end the tragic situationsin Syria, Yemen and other countries.

Normalization between the two countries is still a good distanceaway and past hostilities could mean that any attemptat rapprochement will not succeed.

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Iran and Saudi Arabia struggle to reconcile differences - Deutsche Welle