At least nine detained protesting at blast-hit Turkiye steel plant

Aliaga, Turkiye: Turkiye’s security forces on Friday detained at least nine people protesting a ban on bringing mobile phones into a steel plant that was hit by a deadly explosion this week, a workers’ collective said.

Workers arriving for their morning shift at the HABAS steel factory were told to leave their mobile phones at a security checkpoint, prompting them to gather at the facility’s entrance in protest, according to Oktay Turk, spokesman for the Aegean Workers’ Collective.

“At least nine people were detained,” Turk told AFP, adding that he was among those taken into custody at the factory, located in Aliaga, a district known for shipbreaking and heavy industry near the western port city of Izmir.