At least four people were killed and nearly 700 injured in a massive explosion that rocked the Shahid Rajaee port in southern Iran on Saturday, officials said.
In a televised interview on state television, Babak Mahmoudi, head of the Relief and Rescue Organization, confirmed the death toll from the blast.
He said emergency personnel were immediately dispatched to the scene to transport the injured to medical centers, and firefighting teams were working to put out the fire.
The number of injured is rising steadily. The National Emergency Organization said in its latest update that at least 560 people had been injured and taken to nearby hospitals.
President Masoud Pezeshkian, in a statement on X, expressed his grief and condolences to the victims and ordered an investigation into the cause of the incident.
He said Interior Minister Eskandar Momeni has been sent to the region as his special representative “to conduct a thorough investigation into the extent of the incident, ensure the necessary coordination and take care of the injured.”
Earlier, Momeni ordered the provincial authorities in Hormozgan to submit a preliminary report on the incident, his office said in a statement.
Iran’s First Vice President Mohammad Aref held separate phone calls with the governor of Hormozgan province and the head of the Red Crescent Society, issuing the necessary directives, his office said.
He ordered a comprehensive investigation into the cause of the explosion at the port and immediate assistance to the injured.
In the directive, the Iranian Customs Administration ordered all customs offices to suspend the dispatch of export and transit shipments destined for Shahid Rajaee Customs in Bandar Abbas until further notice.
The strategically important port, located in the southern province of Hormozgan, lies about 15 kilometers southwest of the port of Bandar Abbas on the northern shore of the Strait of Hormuz.
There is no precise information yet on the number of victims, but the explosion was so intense that it could have caused extensive damage, local media reported.
The intensity and scale of the explosion at Shahid Rajaee Port has been compared to the explosion at Beirut Port in August 2020, which killed more than 200 people.
