While people in a number of Iranian cities have poured into streets in solidarity with the protesters in Abadan, unconfirmed reports say some other parts of the ramshackle Metropol building have collapsed.
Residents of Khorramshahr and Behbahan, two other cities in the southwestern province of Khuzestan, took to the streets Thursday night, chanting slogans against the Islamic Republic.
The people of Shahinshahr in the central Esfahan province and Bandar Abbas in the southern province of Hormozgan also held protest rallies to show their solidarity with the people of Abadan, whose mourning ceremonies for the victims of the collapsed ten-story Metropol twin towers have turned into anti-government protests since Wednesday.
During the Thursday night protests in Abadan, people chanted slogans against the Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei himself, saying “Khamenei is a murderer; his rule is illegitimate” despite the deployment of anti-riot police.
Iranians see the Metropol incident, with 24 people dead so far, the result of powerful insiders not abiding by laws and regulation and violating building codes, and accuse the authorities of letting Metropol owner flee Iran.
The government says the owner died in the collapse, but protesters say authorities are lying and the well-connected man has fled.
People in Khuzestan, Esfahan and Tehran are reporting serious disruption in their access to the internet amid ongoing protests to prevent uploading images of protests to social media.
Iran witnessed days of protests in May when the government raised food prices, with the overall political situation remaining tense.
