TEHRAN, Iran: Hundreds of people have been injured after a massive explosion and fire at the Iranian port city of Bandar Abbas, more than 1,000 kilometres south of capital Tehran, Iranian officials and state media reported.
Iran’s state television reported that the blast occurred at Shahid Rajaei Port, the country’s largest commercial port located in Hormozgan province.
The explosion was attributed to negligence in the storage of flammable materials, with several containers reportedly igniting at the site.
Hormozgan province’s crisis management chief, Mehrdad Hassanzadeh, told state television that at least 516 people were injured in the incident.
He said that all injured individuals had been transferred to nearby medical facilities for treatment.
Local officials stated that safety teams had previously visited the site and issued warnings regarding unsafe storage practices. However, the exact cause of the explosion remains under investigation.
In a statement issued shortly after the incident, the National Iranian Oil Products Refining and Distribution Company clarified that no oil facilities were affected by the blast.
“The explosion and fire in Shahid Rajaei Port have no connection to refineries, fuel tanks, distribution complexes and oil pipelines related to this company,” the statement said.
Earlier, Esmaeil Malekizadeh, an official from the Hormozgan Ports and Maritime Administration, confirmed that the explosion had taken place near the Shahid Rajaei port dock.
Iran’s Tasnim news agency released images of injured individuals lying on roads as emergency services struggled to contain the chaos.
Reports said the explosion shattered windows several kilometres away, and residents on the nearby island of Qeshm, 26 kilometres south of Bandar Abbas, also heard the blast.
Shahid Rajaei Port is a major hub for container traffic and also houses oil tanks and petrochemical facilities.
The explosion comes at a sensitive moment as Iranian officials are engaged in a new round of nuclear negotiations with United States representatives in Oman.
While Iranian media stressed that the explosion appears to be an industrial accident, authorities have not ruled out other possibilities and have launched a formal investigation.
State television initially reported that at least 281 people were injured, but later updates from crisis management officials raised the toll to over 500. There have been no official reports of fatalities so far.
Efforts to extinguish the fire were ongoing late into Saturday, with authorities evacuating trucks and securing the container yard, which was said to contain hazardous chemicals.
