Fires continue to burn as Iran probes deadly explosion at key port

Officials suspect chemical materials exploded at Bandar Abbas port – Iran’s biggest container hub – as death toll hits 28.

Fires continue to burn a day after a massive explosion tore through Iran’s largest commercial port in Bandar Abbas, as casualties continue to rise.

The death toll from Saturday’s massive explosion at Shahid Rajaei Port rose to 28, Red Crescent chief Pirhossein Koolivand said on Sunday, updating earlier figures reported by state media, as firefighters continued with their efforts to put out the fire.

“Unfortunately, 28 people have so far died,” Koolivand said in a video published on the Iranian government’s official website, adding that some of the more than 1,000 injured in the Shahid Rajaee Port blast had been transferred to the capital Tehran for treatment.

On Sunday, a video posted by Tasnim showed a helicopter hovering over the site of the incident, trying to help extinguish the fire as thick black smoke rose.

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”.

The country’s national emergency agency told Tasnim that at least five of the victims had been transferred to the city of Shiraz for further treatment.

“The fire is under control but still not out,” a state TV correspondent reported from the site about 20 hours after the explosion.

Entekhab news website quoted the national crisis management agency as saying that 80 percent of the fire has been put out, adding that most of the people taken to medical facilities for treatment had been discharged.

Three Chinese nationals were “lightly injured”, China’s state broadcaster CCTV reported, citing its Bandar Abbas consulate.

With choking smoke and air pollution spreading throughout the area, all schools and offices in Bandar Abbas, the capital of Hormozgan province, have been ordered closed on Sunday to allow authorities to focus on the emergency effort, state TV reported.

The explosion took place on Saturday 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 person with ties to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, speaking on condition of anonymity, told The New York Times that the chemical that exploded was sodium perchlorate, a major ingredient in solid fuel for missiles.

Hazardous chemicals

The explosion was so powerful that it was felt about 50km (30 miles) away, Fars news agency reported.

Images from the official IRNA news agency showed rescuers and survivors walking along a boulevard carpeted with debris after the blast at Shahid Rajaei, more than 1,000km (620 miles) south of Tehran.

The coal mine blast in September, caused by a gas leak, killed more than 50 people at Tabas in the east of the country.

The incident took place as Iranian and US delegations met in Oman for high-level talks on Tehran’s nuclear programme, with both sides reporting progress.