Iranian Butcher Still Missing After Strike Destroys Shop During Holiday Rush

Brothers continue searching for 41-year-old Mahdi Mirzahosseini, who disappeared when his butcher shop was destroyed in a Monday strike on a Tehran commercial complex. Despite ongoing rescue efforts, only his jacket and car key have been found among the rubble that killed six people.

Two brothers return daily to a pile of debris in Tehran, desperately searching for their missing sibling who vanished when his butcher shop was leveled during what witnesses described as a double bombing of a commercial building.

Mahdi Mirzahosseini, 41, had worked as a butcher’s assistant for two decades before launching his own meat shop approximately one year ago. His family says he was determined to keep the business open to supply customers preparing for Persian New Year celebrations.

The youngest of seven children hasn’t been spotted since Monday’s attack that demolished the mixed-use building containing residences, retail shops, and a laundry facility on the ground level. His older brothers have conducted daily searches at the destruction site ever since.

Recovery teams using heavy machinery have only located Mirzahosseini’s jacket and vehicle key during their continuous excavation efforts, the family reported to Reuters on Saturday. He remains the sole person unaccounted for from the incident.

Emergency responders have pulled six bodies from the wreckage along with 18 survivors, rescue officials confirmed. Both a local resident and rescue personnel stated the building had no military connections and was hit twice in rapid succession shortly after midday.

Pir-Hossein Kolivand, who leads Iran’s Red Crescent Society, reported this complex was among more than 80,000 civilian buildings damaged in American and Israeli bombardments during the current three-week conflict.

The Red Crescent chief also noted that strikes have impacted nearly 500 educational institutions and 266 healthcare facilities, encompassing hospitals, medical clinics, and pharmacies. Reuters was unable to independently confirm these casualty figures or verify details surrounding the commercial complex attack.

“Attacks targeting residential neighborhoods and civilian infrastructure are becoming more frequent,” Kolivand stated. Both Israeli and American officials maintain they do not deliberately target non-combatants.

Six days after the bombing, a massive crater marks where the commercial center once operated, encircled by towering heaps of concrete and debris. Charred fabric remnants still dangle from a bare tree nearby.

Red Crescent emergency responder Amir Saeed-Jamshidi described arriving at the scene within minutes of the explosions to discover blazing fires and enormous piles of rubble. Local residents informed his team that people buried beneath the debris were making phone calls pleading for rescue.

Saeed-Jamshidi explained his crew excavated two separate tunnels to reach trapped survivors, including several people caught deep within an underground parking structure.

The blast’s shockwave damaged all neighboring structures, with one building losing every window.

According to his brother Hamid, Mirzahosseini had shuttered his shop during the conflict’s first two weeks, but customers began requesting meat and poultry for holiday meals. Their mother had begged him to remain at home for safety.

“Customers are calling. I have to go do my work,” Mirzahosseini told his family, according to his brother’s account.

The missing man’s relatives maintain their optimism for his safe return.

“God willing we will find him safe,” declared another brother, Khalil, while standing near his former butcher shop’s location and cradling his baby. “There is no trace of him.”