14 killed, over 700 injured in blast, fire at Iran’s Bandar Abbas port

TEHRAN/ISLAMABAD: A powerful explosion ripped through a key port in southern Iran on Saturday, killing 14 people and injuring more than 700, state media said.

Although the cause of the blast was not immediately clear, the Bandar Abbas port’s customs office 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 the southern coast.

Footage on state TV showed thick columns of black smoke billowing from the port where many containers are stored, with helicopters deployed to fight the flames.

Citing local emergency services, state TV reported that at least 700 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. Three Chinese nationals were “lightly injured”, China’s state broadcaster CCTV reported, citing its Bandar Abbas consulate. 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”, sending Interior Minister Eskandar Momeni to look into the incident. Shahid Rajaee, more than 1,000 kilometres south of Tehran, is Iran’s most advanced container port, according to IRNA. It is located 23 kilometres west of Bandar Abbas, the Hormozgan provincial capital, and near the Strait of Hormuz, through which a fifth of world oil output passes.

The explosion was so powerful that it was felt and heard about 50 kilometres away, Fars news agency reported, with residents saying they could feel the ground shake even at a distance.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif held a telephonic conversation with Masoud Pezeshkian, President of the Islamic Republic of Iran, on Saturday. He conveyed deepest condolences on behalf of the people and Government of Pakistan to the Iranian president and the people of Iran on the loss of precious lives in the tragic explosion at Bandar Abbas port.

The PM shared Pakistan’s position on India’s provocative actions following the Pahlgam incident.