Four people were Killed and around 500 were reported injured after several containers exploded, causing a massive blast and fire, at Iran's most advanced port on Saturday. The explosion took place at the Shahid Rajaee port in Iran's Bandar Abbas city.
"The explosion occurred in a part of the Shahid Rajaee port dock, and we are extinguishing the fire," local tv channels quoted Esmaeil Malekizadeh, a regional port official, as saying.
Four rapid response teams were dispatched to the spot after the explosion. Shahid Rajaee, located 1000 kilometres south of the capital Tehran, is the most advanced container port in Iran, and 23 kilomtres west of Bandar Abbas, the Hormozgan provincial capital, and north of the Strait of Hormuz through which a fifth of world oil output passes.
Currently, the injured are being evacuated and transported to the nearby medical centres. The blast has happened at a time when Iran is holding a third round of nuclear talks with the United States in Oman, though the cause of the explosion is unclear.
In 2020, Shahid Rajaee port had also been targeted by a cyberattack that caused significant backups in the surrounding areas. According to a Washington Post report, Israel was likely behind that attack in retaliation for an earlier Iranian cyberattack.
On Friday, Iran's Foreign Minister Seyed Abbas Araghchi expressed Tehran's willingness to mediate between India & Pakistan amid the ongoing diplomatic tensions after the Pahalgam terror attack.
