Your trusted source

Iranian rescue workers are digging tunnels to reach the underground stories of the ageing high-rise that collapsed in downtown Tehran amid ongoing search operations to retrieve those trapped, Press TV reported.

The source reminds that Plasco building caught fire in early Thursday and came down only hours later, blockading 25 to 30 people under the detritus.

Saeid Sharif-Zadeh, the chief executive of Iran’s Fire Control Organization, said two tunnels were dug into the first and second stories beneath the building’s floor. Rescuers, he said, were, however, yet to reach those trapped there. The relief workers were deploying technical equipment and sniffer dogs to locate potential survivors.

Tehran Mayor Mohammad-Baqer Qalibaf said as many as 20 firefighters had died during the disaster.

On Friday morning, IRNA quoted a familiar source as saying that as many as 23 firefighters and some four journalists remain buried under the rubble.