According to the local authorities, a huge explosion and fire in a port in South Iran has killed at least four people.
More than 500 people were also injured after the explosion in the port of Shahid Rajai, just outside Bandar Abbas.
Bandar Abbas is an important facility for container shipments for the Islamic Republic that processes around 80 million tonnes of goods annually.
Head of the rescue organization of the country, Babak Mahmoudi, the state told television that at least four people had died.
Authorities offered no reason for the explosion hours later, although videos suggested that everything that was inflamed in the port was very flammable.
“The source of this incident was the explosion of various containers stored in the Shahid Rajaee Port Wharf area,” a local crisis management told State TV.
“We are currently evacuating and transferring the wounded to medical centers,”
said the official.
Smoke from the explosion can be seen in the Shahid Rajaee port in Bandar Abbas, Iran. ((Reuters: West Asia News Agency))
Mehrdad Hasanzadeh, a provincial disaster management official, told the Iranian state of TV that First Responders tried to reach the area while others tried to evacuate the site.
Hasanzadeh said that the explosion came from containers in the port of Rajai in the city, without working out.
There were efforts to go out a considerable fire, where the habits of the port said that trucks from the area were evacuated and that the container yard where the explosion took place probably contained “dangerous goods and chemicals”.
Oil facilities were not influenced by the explosion, since the National Iranian petroleum reflection and distribution company has issued a statement stating: “The explosion and fire in the port of Shahid Rajaee have no connection with refineries, fuel tanks, distribution complexes and oil terrores.”
An abandoned truck on a road next to the port of Shahid Rajaee. ((Reuters: West Asia News Agency))
The port of Rajaei is approximately 1,050 kilometers southeast of the capital of Iran, Tehran, on the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow mouth of the Persian gap, which means that 20 percent of all traded oil bags.
The explosion happened when Iran and the United States met on Saturday in Oman for the third negotiation round about the rapidly advancing nuclear program of Tehran.
In 2020, computers in the same port were hit by a cyber attack that caused massive back -ups on waterways and roads that led to the facility.
AP/Reuters
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