More than 500 people were injured Saturday as a large explosion ripped through a key port in southern Iran, state media said, with the cause of the blast not immediately clear. State media reported a “massive explosion” at Shahid Rajaee, the country’s largest commercial port, located in Hormozgan province on Iran’s southern coast. The Tansnim news agency said at least 516 people had been wounded. There was no immediate information on possible fatalities.
Citing local emergency services, state television reported that many “people have been injured, dozens of whom have been transferred to nearby medical centers,” revising earlier tolls. “The explosion occurred in a part of the Shahid Rajaee port dock, and we are extinguishing the fire,” state TV quoted Esmaeil Malekizadeh, a regional port official, as saying.
Efforts were ongoing to extinguish a significant fire, with the port’s customs saying that trucks were being evacuated from the area and that the container yard where the explosion occurred likely contained “dangerous goods and chemicals.”State TV said “negligence in handling flammable materials was a contributing factor” in the explosion. Shahid Rajaee, more than 1,000 kilometers (620 miles) south of the capital Tehran, is the most advanced container port in Iran, according to the official IRNA news agency. (Ed note: Shahid Rajace is located within Bandar Abbas, on the southern coast of Iran, near the narrowest part of the Strait of Hormuz) (Read More)
