Aliaga (Turkey) (AFP) - Grieving relatives faced an agonising wait for the identification of their dead Tuesday after a huge blast at a Turkish steel plant killed 18 people, as labour groups called a string of protests over safety issues.

Onlookers said Monday’s massive explosion felt like “an earthquake” when it ripped through the HABAS steel factory in Aliaga, a district known for shipbreaking and heavy industry about 35 km (23 miles) from the western port city of Izmir.

The deadly blast at one of Turkey’s top steel producers also left another dozen people injured, one of whom was in a critical condition.

Speaking to reporters at the plant, deputy Justice Minister Can Tuncay said forensic investigators found the victims had died from “burns so severe they caused carbonisation”.

Rescuers later found the body of another worker at the plant, raising the toll to 18 dead, IHA news agency reported.

Investigators probing the explosion on Tuesday detained HABAS chairman Mehmet Rustu Basaran in Istanbul, media reports said, just hours after Tuncay said he was one of 11 people slated for arrest, alongside senior plant officials.

Another six were detained on Monday.

Outside the forensic institute in Aliaga, bereaved family members said they had waited all night for confirmation that their loved ones had been identified so they could be laid to rest.

“We have been here since yesterday,” said Turgut Dilek, whose nephew Ozcan Efe was killed.

“Since the bodies are in a condition that makes visual identification impossible, the identification process is carried out through DNA analysis.”

Sevval Ozcelik, whose 25-year-old brother Kaan Ozcelik had worked at HABAS as a mechanical engineer for just three months, vowed she would not rest until those responsible were found.

“They took my brother’s life. I will not let this go … They will answer for this, one by one,” she told journalists at Aliaga hospital.

As anger grew over the deadly blast, labour rights groups called three protests on Tuesday evening, one in Aliaga, and two others in Istanbul and Ankara.

- ‘Worst thing I’ve ever seen’ -

Also fighting for his life was a HABAS truck driver who escaped the blast but went inside to find his colleagues and was so traumatised that he set himself alight outside the factory, said an AFP photographer who witnessed the incident.

He was being treated at Izmir City hospital, with a provincial health directorate spokeswoman identifying him as Turan Ilbay.

“His condition is serious; he is being monitored in intensive care,” she told AFP.

Ilbay, 40, had earlier spoken to Anadolu news agency outside the plant where he had worked as a truck driver for 23 years.

“There was a huge sound, like a bomb, it shook the truck,” he told Anadolu.

“When I went inside the factory, I was faced with the worst scene I’ve seen in my life.”

Hours later, in a horrifying act of protest during the evening, he set himself alight outside the main gates, AFP photographer Berkcan Zengin, who was at the scene, said.

“He went to the area where cameras were recording, he poured petrol over his head, then splashed it all over himself as he walked. Then he suddenly set himself on fire,” he said.

“He fell to the ground and struggled. The gendarmes intervened with fire extinguishers and he was taken to hospital by ambulance,” he said, his images showing the man wearing the same red polo neck jumper he was seen in during his earlier interview with Anadolu.

- Chequered safety record -

There has been growing anger over what workers’ groups say is a chequered safety record at HABAS, with the left-wing Evrensel newspaper saying at least 11 workers had died there over the past decade.

Contacted by AFP, HABAS declined to respond.

Visiting the site, the co-chair of DEM, Turkey’s third party, said it was a case of “workplace murder”, demanding the resignation of the labour minister, the industry minister and top safety officials.

“This massacre at HABAS’s iron and steel factory is not an accident but a workplace murder,” Tulay Hatimogullari told reporters.

The main opposition Yeni Parti has demanded a full parliamentary inquiry into the explosion and possible workplace safety failures, ANKA news agency reported.