The death toll from a powerful explosion at Iran’s biggest port of Bandar Abbas has risen to at least 40, with more than 1,200 people injured, state media reported on Sunday, as firefighters worked to fully extinguish the fire.
The blast occurred on Saturday at Shahid Rajaee Port in southern Iran, near the Strait of Hormuz, through which a fifth of the world’s oil output passes.
The port’s customs office said in a statement carried by state television that the explosion probably resulted from a fire that broke out at the hazardous and chemical materials storage depot. A regional emergency official said several containers had exploded.
The New York Times quoted a person with ties to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss security matters, as saying that what exploded was sodium perchlorate — a major ingredient in solid fuel for missiles.
However, Iran’s defence ministry denied media reports that the blast may be linked to the mishandling of solid fuel used for missiles. A spokesperson for the ministry told state TV the reports were “aligned with enemy psyops”, saying that the blast-hit area did not contain any military cargo.
Earlier, Red Crescent chief Pirhossein Koolivand, in a video shared on the government’s official website, gave on Sunday an updated toll of 28 people killed and more than 1,000 injured.
Live footage on Sunday showed thick black smoke still visible at the scene. “The fire is under control but still not out,” a state TV correspondent reported from the site around 20 hours after the blast.
The explosion was so powerful that it was felt and heard about 50 kilometres away, the Fars news agency reported.
Speaking on Sunday at the scene, Interior Minister Eskandar Momeni said that “the situation has stabilised in the main areas” of the port.
He told state TV that workers had resumed loading containers and customs clearance.
Images from Iranian news agency IRNA on Saturday showed rescuers and survivors walking along a wide boulevard carpeted with debris after the blast at Shahid Rajaee, more than 1,000km south of Tehran.
Flames could be seen engulfing a truck trailer and blood stained the side of a crushed car, while a helicopter dropped water on massive black smoke clouds billowing from behind stacked shipping containers.
“The shockwave was so strong that most of the port buildings were severely damaged,” Tasnim news agency reported.
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