An explosion at a steel plant in western Turkey killed 17 people and injured 13 when a crane collapsed into a furnace during maintenance work on Monday.

The blast occurred at 11:46am local time at the HABAS plant in Aliaga, Izmir province, triggering a fire and sending thick smoke above the industrial complex. Governor Süleyman Elban said an overhead crane collapsed into an electric arc furnace while replacing a boiler, damaging a gas line and causing the explosion. Around 200 employees were in the affected area, fewer than the usual 300, because production had been suspended for the maintenance work.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan initially reported 16 deaths and 13 injuries, two of them critical, but Health Minister Kemal Memisoglu later confirmed the toll had risen to 17 after one critically injured person died. "Judicial and administrative investigations have been launched into the explosion," Erdogan said. Five people have been detained and four prosecutors assigned to investigate, Justice Minister Akin Gurlek said.

A worker, Yasin Cetiner, told AFP that a snapped crane cable sent around 120 tonnes of molten steel crashing onto the furnace, triggering a hydrogen explosion when it contacted water-cooled panels inside. Witness Nuri Ali Ulker said, "The ground shook. It was very intense." Another witness, Deniz Ulker, said the blast "felt like the earth's crust was shifting beneath us. I thought it was an earthquake."

The brother of one victim set himself on fire in protest outside the plant and was hospitalized, according to the newspaper Evrensel. The opposition DEM party called the incident "unacceptable" and demanded that negligence be fully investigated. Evrensel reported that at least 11 workers had died at the factory in the past ten years. The plant, established in 1987, can produce 4.5 million tons of steel annually.