Major blast at south Iran port kills four, injures hundreds

TDT | Manama

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A powerful explosion ripped through a key port in southern Iran yesterday, killing four people and injuring more than 500, state media said. Although the cause of the blast was not immediately clear, the customs office at the port said in a statement carried by state TV that it probably resulted from a fire that broke out at the hazmat and chemical materials storage depot.

State media reported a “massive explosion” at Shahid Rajaee, the country’s largest commercial port, located in Hormozgan province on Iran’s southern coast. Footage broadcast on state TV showed thick columns of black smoke billowing from the port area, where many containers are stored, with helicopters deployed to fight the fire.

Citing local emergency services, state TV reported that at least 516 people were injured and “hundreds have been transferred to nearby medical centres”. “Unfortunately, at least four deaths have been confirmed by rescuers,” the head of the Red Crescent Society’s Relief and Rescue Organisation, Babak Mahmoudi, later told the broadcaster. State TV had quoted Esmaeil Malekizadeh, a regional port official, as saying authorities were working to put out a fire at the facility.

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian expressed sympathy for the victims of the deadly blast, adding he had “issued an order to investigate the situation and the causes”, dispatching Interior Minister Eskandar Momeni to the area to look into the incident. Shahid Rajaee, more than 1,000 kilometres (620 miles) south of the capital Tehran, is the most advanced container port in Iran, according to the official IRNA news agency. It is located 23 kilometres west of Bandar Abbas, the Hormozgan provincial capital, and north of the Strait of Hormuz, through which a fifth of world oil output passes.