CNN
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At least 28 people died and 800 were injured in a great explosion in the port of Bandar Abbas, in southern Iran, according to state media.
The explosion sent a huge column of thick and gray smoke from the Shahid Rajaee part of the port complex, according to videos geolocalized by CNN, and the government said that the explosion was probably related to stored chemicals.
Iran Interior Minister Eskandar Momeni said that six people are still missing while firefighters continue to work to extinguish the fire, despite the challenges raised by strong winds, the Iranian media reported.
The cause of the explosion has not been determined. A spokeswoman for Iran’s government, Fatemeh Mohajarani, said it will take time to determine the cause, “but so far it has been determined that in a corner of the port containers were stored that probably contained chemical substances that exploded.”
He added: “But until the fire is not extinguished, it is difficult to determine the cause.”
The National Petroleum Refining and Distribution Company of Iran declared that the explosion in the port was not related to refineries, fuel tanks or the company associated with the company in that area. This occurred after the Iranian official media reported that the explosion occurred after a tank fuel ship in the port exploded for unknown reasons.
The incident led the Iranian authorities to declare the state of emergency in the city of Bandar Abbas to protect citizens in the midst of a “significant increase in air pollution.”
The Ministry of Health has mobilized health teams and implemented emergency measures to protect public health. Citizens are recommended to remain at home, avoid outdoor activities and keep the windows closed, according to the Iranian official media.
A video distributed by the Mehr news agency showed vigilance images of the explosion, which apparently occurred in a port warehouse. Other images showed helicopters throwing water at the scene of the fire caused by the explosion.
The debris extended through a large area and many buildings of the port complex were seriously damaged, according to state media. The windows on a radius of several kilometers were destroyed, they indicated.
Some reports said there were people trapped among the remains of a building that was reduced to debris.
The governor of the region, Mohammad Ashouri Taziani, informed that the injured were being transferred to medical centers of Bandar Abbas. The port has been closed and suspended maritime operations, according to state media.
The president of Iran, Masoud fishshkian, ordered an investigation into the causes of the incident. He wrote in X that the Interior Minister had been sent to the region to “examine the magnitude of the accident.”
After receiving the initial reports and analyzing the possible causes of the incident, fishshkian emphasized the need to carry out an exhaustive evaluation of the causes of the incident as soon as possible to prevent similar incidents from repeating themselves in the future.
The Irib state station said the explosion took place in the chemical and sulfur area of the port.
The incident has shocked the country and in the Iraní Press TV
Shahid Rajae is a large installation for container transport, with an area of 2,400 hectares (approximately 5,900 acres). It manages 70 million tons of load per year, including oil and general maritime transport. It has almost 500,000 square meters (5.4 million square feet) of warehouses and 35 beans.
Kareem el Damanhoury, from CNN, contributed to this report.
