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A massive explosion at the Shahid Rajaee Port in Iran’s southern province of Hormozgan on Saturday left over 560 people injured and claimed the lives of four others, according to the semi-official Mehr news agency.
The blast occurred as Iran began a third round of nuclear talks with the United States in Oman. A local crisis management official told state television, “The cause of this incident was the explosion of several containers stored in the Shahid Rajaee Port wharf area. We are currently evacuating and transferring the injured to medical centers.”
Babak Yektaparast, spokesperson for Iran’s Emergency Medical Services Organization, confirmed that the wounded have been transported to nearby medical facilities for treatment.
The explosion sent a huge column of smoke into the sky and caused extensive damage to nearby buildings and vehicles. The port, spanning over 4,800 hectares of operational area and hinterland, is one of the largest container terminals in the country with a loading and unloading capacity of 90 million tonnes. Over 85 percent of Iran’s containers are handled at the Shahid Rajaee Complex, based on 2021 data from Mehr news agency.
