At least eight people were killed and 750 injured in a huge explosion in one of the most important ports of Iran, the authorities say.
The explosion took place in Shahid Rajaee, the largest commercial port in the country, near the southern city of Bandar Abbas on Saturday morning.
It blew windows and roofs from nearby buildings and destroyed cars. Residents reported that they felt the impact of the explosion up to 50 km (31 miles) distance.
Videos verified by the BBC show a fire that grows in intensity for a huge explosion, in which people then flee the explosion and others are injured on roads surrounded by smoking debris.
“The entire warehouse was filled with smoke, dust and ashes. I no longer know if I went under the table or was thrown through the explosion,” said a person who was in the area, the state said TV.
Air images showed at least three areas on fire and the Minister of the Interior of Iran later confirmed that the fire spread from one container to another. Schools and offices in the region have been ordered to stay closed on Sundays.
A private maritime risk company said it believed that the affected containers had solid fuel that were intended for ballistic rockets.
The fire was the result of “incorrect treatment of a shipping of solid fuel intended for use in Iranian ballistic rockets,” said Ambrey Intelligence.
Ambrey said it was aware that a ship in Iran flag “fired a shipment of sodium per chlorate rocket fuel in the port in March 2025”.
The Financial Times newspaper had previously reported that two ships had sent fuel to Iran from China.
Staatsmedia quoted witnesses who say that the explosion took place after a fire broke out and spread to non -enclosed containers that store “flammable materials”.
The customs officers later issued a statement reported by the Iranian state -tv and said that the explosion was probably the result of a fire that had broken out in a storage depot of Hazmat and Chemical Materials.
In a later update, Ambrey quoted the National Disaster Management Organization of Iran and said that officials had previously given warnings to the port of Shahid Rajaee with regard to the safe storage of chemicals.
[EPA]
Motorways were littered with rubble and rubble after the explosion [Reuters]
Shahid Rajaee Port is the largest and most advanced terminal in Iran, which means that many of the commercial shipping transitions of the country.
It is located on the Strait of Hormuz, an important shipping channel for oil for oil, and is approximately 20 km (12 miles) to the west of Bandar Abbas, the most important port city of Iran on the south coast and the home of the main base of the Iranian Navy.
Iran's national oil production company said that the explosion in the port “had no connection” with the oil refineries, fuel tanks and pipelines of the country, local media reported.
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian has pronounced his “deep regret and sympathy” for victims. He has announced a government investigation and sent the Minister of the Interior to the region to lead it.
Saturday's explosion coincided with the last round of negotiation between Iranian and American officials about the nuclear program of Iran, where US President Donald Trump wants to conclude a deal that would prevent Tehran getting nuclear weapons.
Both of the Oman mediators, both parties, reported that progress had been made, but Iran's best representative said that the work was still needed to limit differences. Negotiations will continue next week.
Iran has said that it is open to sidewalks on its nuclear program in exchange for relaxing sanctions, but has insisted that it will not stop enriching uranium. It says that his nuclear program is for civil use.
The conversations this year have marked the first high -level involvement between the US and Iran since 2018, when Trump withdrew from an earlier deal in his first term to limit Iran's nuclear activities and to restore economic sanctions.
[BBC]
