Iran’s president visited these injured Sunday in a huge explosion that rocked one of many Islamic Republic’s foremost ports, a facility purportedly linked to an earlier supply of a chemical ingredient used to make missile propellant.
The go to by President Masoud Pezeshkian got here because the toll from Saturday’s blast on the Shahid Rajaei port outdoors of Bandar Abbas in southern Iran’s Hormozgan province rose to twenty-eight killed and about 1,000 others injured.
Whereas Iran’s army sought to disclaim the supply of ammonium perchlorate from China, new movies emerged exhibiting an apocalyptic scene on the still-smoldering port. A crater that appeared meters deep sat surrounded by burning smoke so harmful that authorities closed faculties and companies within the space.
Iranian state tv described the fireplace as being beneath management, saying emergency staff hoped that it will be absolutely extinguished later Sunday. In a single day, helicopters and heavy cargo plane flew repeated sorties over the burning port, dumping seawater on the positioning.
Pir Hossein Kolivand, head of Iran’s Purple Crescent society supplied the dying toll and variety of injured in a press release carried by an Iranian authorities web site, saying that solely 190 of the injured remained hospitalized on Sunday. The provincial governor declared three days of mourning.
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Personal safety agency Ambrey says the port acquired missile gasoline chemical in March. It was a part of a cargo of ammonium perchlorate from China by two vessels to Iran, first reported in January by the Monetary Instances. The chemical used to make strong propellant for rockets was going for use to replenish Iran’s missile shares, which had been depleted by its direct assaults on Israel throughout the war with Hamas within the Gaza Strip.
Ship-tracking information analyzed by The Related Press put one of many vessels believed to be carrying the chemical within the neighborhood in March, as Ambrey mentioned.
“The fireplace was reportedly the results of improper dealing with of a cargo of strong gasoline meant to be used in Iranian ballistic missiles,” Ambrey mentioned.
In a primary response on Sunday, Iranian Protection Ministry spokesman Gen. Reza Talaeinik denied that missile gasoline had been imported via the port.
“No type of imported and exporting consignment for gasoline or army software was (or) is within the website of the port,” he advised state tv by phone. He known as overseas studies on the missile gasoline baseless — however supplied no clarification for what materials detonated with such unbelievable power on the website. Talaeinik promised authorities would provide extra data later.
It’s unclear why Iran wouldn’t have moved the chemical compounds from the port, notably after the Beirut port blast in 2020. That explosion, attributable to the ignition of a whole bunch of tons of extremely explosive ammonium nitrate, killed greater than 200 individuals and injured greater than 6,000 others. Nonetheless, Israel did goal Iranian missile websites the place Tehran makes use of industrial mixers to create solid fuel — that means probably that it had no place to course of the chemical.
Social media footage of the explosion on Saturday at Shahid Rajaei noticed reddish-hued smoke rising from the fireplace simply earlier than the detonation. That means a chemical compound being concerned within the blast, like within the Beirut explosion.
In the meantime on Sunday, Russian President Vladimir Putin deployed a number of emergency plane to Bandar Abbas to supply help, Iran’s state-run IRNA information company reported.
© 2025 The Canadian Press
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