More than 20 firefighters were killed in Tehran on Thursday when a multi-story building collapsed as they were battling a blaze, the city's mayor told Iranian state TV channel.
"Our colleagues in the fire department have lost their lives while trying to save the people in the fire," Mohammad Baqer Ghalibaf told the Islamic Republic of Iran News Network.
Earlier Thursday, Tehran's fire department spokesman Jalal Maleki told IRINN an estimated 20 to 30 firefighters were on the third floor of the high-rise Plasco building when it collapsed.
Maleki also told a local journalist at the scene that 35 firefighters were missing and that rescue workers were trying to dig them out.
The cause of the building fire and collapse is being investigated, he added.
The journalist on the scene, who spoke to CNN but declined to be named, said police and other uniformed security personnel have blocked the area and are not allowing people or cars to enter.
The journalist said that when he got there, several firefighters were inside the collapsed building and were feverishly trying to clear the debris and find buried colleagues, but their commander, using a loud speaker, had ordered them all out before assigning them to specific tasks.
Iran's semi-official Fars news agency reported that the Plasco building -- a downtown commercial garment building and one of Tehran's oldest high-rises -- "no longer exists."
Official news agency IRNA cited the head of Tehran Emergency Services as saying 70 people had been injured in the fire.
A spokesman for Tehran Emergency Services, Hassan Abbasi, told IRNA that 23 seriously injured people were receiving hospital treatment. The remaining 47 had minor injuries and were treated at the site, Abbasi said.
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