Fire at drug rehab centre in north Iran kills 32: media

The death toll from a fire at a drug rehabilitation clinic in northern Iran has risen to 32, according to local media, up from 27 before. “Thirty-two people have been killed in the fire” which erupted at a drug rehabilitation centre in Langarud, a city in the northern Gilan province, said ISNA news agency quoting the province’s deputy governor Mohammad Jalai. According to Jalai, 16 people were injured in the fire, four of them were in “critical condition.” Earlier, the judiciary’s Mizan Online news website reported 27 dead and 12 injured. The cause of the fire was not immediately obvious, but Mizan said the province’s chief judge Esmail Sadeghi had launched an investigation, adding that the institution had a capacity of 40 persons. Sadeghi stated that numerous suspects, including the center’s manager, had already been apprehended. ISNA transmitted footage of the fire, which lit up the night sky and sent large plumes of smoke into the air. Other footage showed emergency personnel, firefighters and ambulances gathered outside the heavily-damage site after the fire was contained, with images showing the centre’s roof had been destroyed, its windows shattered and its walls blackened by smoke. In August, a fire broke out in Tehran’s Grand Bazaar, damaging multiple shops but causing no casualties. In January 2017, a fire at the 15-storey Plasco shopping centre in Tehran, killed at least 22 people, including 16 firefighters.