At least 281 folks have been injured Saturday following a “massive explosion” at a port in southern Iran, authorities stated.
State media reported a “massive explosion” at Shahid Rajaee, the nation’s largest industrial port situated in Hormozgan province on Iran’s southern coast.
“The explosion occurred in a part of the Shahid Rajaee port dock, and we are extinguishing the fire,” state TV quoted Esmaeil Malekizadeh, a regional port official, as saying.
Shahid Rajaee, greater than 1,000 kilometers (620 miles) south of the capital Tehran, is essentially the most superior container port in Iran, in line with the official IRNA news company.
It is situated 23 kilometers west of Bandar Abbas, the Hormozgan provincial capital, and north of the Strait of Hormuz via which a fifth of world oil output passes.
Footage on state TV confirmed thick columns of black smoke billowing from the port space the place many containers are situated.
“Four rapid response teams were dispatched to the scene after the explosion,” Head of the Hormozgan Red Crescent Society, Mokhtar Salahshour, instructed state TV.
Mehrdad Hassanzadeh, head of the province’s disaster administration authority, instructed state TV that “the cause of this incident was the explosion of several containers stored in the Shahid Rajaee Port wharf area.”
“We are currently evacuating and transporting the injured to nearby medical centers,” he added, with out specifying the variety of casualties.
Source: www.dailysabah.com