The death toll from a massive explosion at Iran’s largest commercial port has risen to 28, Red Crescent chief Pirhossein Koolivand said Sunday, updating earlier figures reported by state media.
“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 on Saturday had been transferred to the capital Tehran for treatment.
Fires were still blazing on Sunday after a massive explosion tore through Iran’s largest commercial port the day before, killing over 20 people and leaving at least 1,000 injured, according to local media.
The blast occurred Saturday at Shahid Rajaee Port in southern Iran, near the Strait of Hormuz, through which a fifth of world 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 regional emergency official said several containers had exploded.
The New York Times quoted a person with ties to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss security matters, as saying that what exploded was sodium perchlorate — a major ingredient in solid fuel for missiles.
Iranian news agency Tasnim, citing the provincial judiciary chief, gave an updated toll on Sunday of 25 people killed. State TV had said around 800 people were injured.
Live footage on Sunday showed thick black smoke still visible at the scene.
“The fire is under control but still not out,” a state TV correspondent reported from the site around 20 hours after the blast.
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The explosion was so powerful that it was felt and heard about 50 kilometres (30 miles) away, Fars news agency reported.
Speaking Sunday at the scene, Interior Minister Eskandar Momeni said that “the situation has stabilised in the main areas” of the port.
He told state TV that workers had resumed loading containers and customs clearance.
Images from news agency IRNA on Saturday showed rescuers and survivors walking along a wide boulevard carpeted with debris after the blast at Shahid Rajaee, more than 1,000 kilometres south of Tehran.
Flames could be seen engulfing a truck trailer and blood stained the side of a crushed car, while a helicopter dropped water on massive black smoke clouds billowing from behind stacked shipping containers.
“The shockwave was so strong that most of the port buildings were severely damaged,” Tasnim news agency reported.
Citing local emergency services, state TV reported that hundreds of casualties “have been transferred to nearby medical centres,” while the provincial blood transfusion centre issued a call for donations.
Saturday is the start of the working week in Iran, meaning the port would have been busy with employees.
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”.