Social media videos show a huge plume of black smoke and a ball of fire rising from the area of the explosion.
A powerful explosion and fire at Iran’s largest commercial port has killed at least eight people and injured more than 750 others, the interior minister said.
Helicopters dumped water on the raging fire hours after the initial explosion on Saturday at the Shahid Rajaei port, located more than 1,000km (620 miles) south of the capital, Tehran.
“All resources from other cities and Tehran have been dispatched… and we hope to be able to extinguish the fire in the coming hours,” Interior Minister Eskandar Momeni told state television at the site of the blast.
On Saturday night, the state-run IRNA news agency said that the Customs Administration of Iran blamed a “stockpile of hazardous goods and chemical materials stored in the port area” for the blast, without elaborating.
Mehrdad Hasanzadeh, director of Hormozgan province’s crisis management organisation, told state television that the injured were transferred to medical facilities.
He said that safety officials had previously visited the site of the incident, and issued safety warnings.
National Iranian Oil Products Refining and Distribution Company issued a statement saying oil facilities in the area were not 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 company said.
Earlier, Hormozgan Ports and Maritime Administration official Esmaeil Malekizadeh said the explosion took place near the Shahid Rajaei port dock.
Social media videos showed a huge plume of black smoke and a ball of fire rising from the area of the explosion.
Other videos showed damage to buildings and vehicles. Several people were also seen around the area attending to the injured and checking the damage to the properties.
Shahid Rajaei port mainly handles container traffic and also has oil tanks and other petrochemical facilities.
In May 2020, Israel was accused of launching a major cyberattack on the same port, causing transport chaos for days after crashing the facility’s computer system.
The blast comes at a sensitive time as Iranian officials continue to engage in talks with United States officials on a possible new nuclear deal.
