The death toll from Monday's explosion at the Habas iron and steel plant in Aliaga, in Turkey's Izmir province, has risen to 18, Turkish Minute reported on Tuesday, after search teams recovered the body of a worker who had been missing since the blast.

Source: Turkish Minute

Authorities have detained the chairman of the company that owns the facility. Habas board chairman Mehmet Rustu Basaran was detained in Istanbul's Kartal district on Tuesday and was expected to be taken to Izmir for questioning, Turkish Minute reported.

The detention came after prosecutors issued warrants for 11 people, including Basaran and senior managers and technical personnel at the Habas plant in Aliaga. Six people had already been detained on Monday. It was not immediately clear whether the 11 new warrants included those six suspects, Turkish Minute said.

Speaking to reporters at the plant, deputy Justice Minister Can Tuncay said forensic investigators had determined the victims had died from burns so severe they caused carbonisation, AFP reported via the Bangkok Post. Prosecutors had issued another 11 arrest warrants, including one for Habas's chairman and other senior plant officials, he said, and an initial six people were detained on Monday.

Source: AFP via Bangkok Post

Families wait for DNA identification

Grieving relatives faced an agonising wait for the identification of their dead on Tuesday. Outside the forensic institute in Aliaga, family members said they had waited all night for confirmation so their loved ones could be laid to rest. Turgut Dilek, whose nephew Ozcan Efe was killed, told AFP: "Since the bodies are in a condition that makes visual identification impossible, the identification process is carried out through DNA analysis."

The blast on Monday also left about a dozen people injured, one of them in a critical condition, AFP reported. Onlookers said Monday's explosion felt like an earthquake when it ripped through the Habas factory in Aliaga, a district known for shipbreaking and heavy industry north of Izmir. Earlier official accounts said an overhead crane collapsed into a furnace during maintenance work — a preliminary finding, not an established cause.

Anger over safety, protests called

Labour rights groups called three protests for Tuesday evening — in Aliaga, Istanbul and Ankara — over workplace safety, AFP reported. Workers' groups accuse the company of a poor safety record; the left-wing Evrensel newspaper reported at least 11 workers had died at the facility over the past decade, according to both AFP and Turkish Minute. Habas declined to respond when contacted by AFP.

Visiting the site, Tulay Hatimogullari, co-chair of the DEM Party, called the blast a case of "workplace murder" and demanded the resignation of the labour minister, the industry minister and top safety officials. The main opposition Yeni Parti (New Party) demanded a full parliamentary inquiry into the explosion and possible workplace safety failures, ANKA news agency reported.

An Aliaga court has also imposed a publication ban covering news reports, interviews and commentary about the incident in print, broadcast, online and social media until the investigation is completed, Turkish Minute reported. Four prosecutors have been assigned to investigate. What happens next: questioning of the detained chairman and managers in Izmir, the prosecutors' findings on the crane collapse, and whether charges follow.