Explosion at cement factory in Turkey kills 3 near Ankara; blast cause under investigation

ANKARA, Turkey – Turkish officials say an explosion at a cement factory in a town near Ankara has killed three employees.

Mayor Lokman Erturk says two other workers were injured in the explosion and fire late Sunday at the factory in Kazan, 50 kilometers (30 miles) north of Ankara, the capital. He said the blast occurred while the workers were trying to fix a faulty boiler. The exact cause is under investigation.

Turkey has a poor workplace safety record across a range of industries. A monitoring group says close to 1,900 people died in work-related accidents last year.

Two construction workers were killed Friday after being trapped under debris following a landslide at a dam construction site in northwest Turkey.