At least 30 firefighters, part of a rescue operation at the oldest high-rise in Tehran, were killed when the iconic building collapsed after a devastating fire on Thursday, January 19.
The disaster struck the Plasco Building, an iconic structure in central Tehran just north of the capital's sprawling bazaar. The death toll is expected to go up, with authorities claiming that at least 50-100 people are still buried under the rubble.
The Iranian Army has also been deployed for rescue and relief work at the site, and are working at a fast pace to extract people from the debris of the collapsed building.
Firefighters battled the blaze for several hours before the collapse. Police tried to keep out shopkeepers and others wanting to rush back in to collect their valuables. Plasco Building was the tallest building in Iran in 1962-63, and was the second building of the 20th century to be the tallest in Iran.
This is a developing story.
