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Iranian firefighters continue to battle flames at the Shahid Rajaee Port near Bandar Abbas on Sunday after Saturday's massive explosion caused dozens of deaths and hundreds of injuries. Authorities said the fire had come under control but was not entirely extinguished in the efforts that included the use of firefighting planes and ships for nearly 24 hours.
Officials said some of the port's operations have resumed and Iranian television showed images of containers being taken off cargo vessels docked at the port.
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Iran's Shahid Rajaee port blast
The number of fatalities has thus far been confirmed at 25 but was expected to rise. Over 800 people were hurt and at least six were missing.
The blast caused extensive damage to Iran's largest container port, reaching a radius of several kilometers. Images showed total destruction to one of the buildings, which could have been the hangar that was seen exploding in security camera footage.
Iran has not officially stated the reason for the explosion and said an investigation has begun but according to reports, the blast was in containers holding chemical materials.
Hossein Zafari, a spokesperson for Iran's crisis management organization, appeared to blame the explosion on poor storage of chemicals in containers at Shahid Rajaee. "The cause of the explosion was the chemicals inside the containers," he told Iran's ILNA news agency.
Observers claimed the port received shipments of sodium perchlorate from China in recent months, a critical component used in the production of rocket fuel for Iran's ballistic missile program. A source in the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) told the New York Times that those containers ignited and exploded.
There is no indication thus far that the blast was caused by an attack and the ayatollah regime in Tehran has also made no such claim. Iran has been negotiating with the United States to reach a new nuclear agreement and the explosion occurred as negotiating teams were in Oman for their third round of talks. Any hint that the blast was part of an attack could potentially be seen as an effort to harm the negotiations.
Iran had experienced accidents in the past caused by its old and dilapidated infrastructure that had suffered the effects and was neglected amid the American sanctions imposed on the country because of its nuclear program. Iran's economy was weakened by sanctions and by increased corruption.
The Shahid Rajaee port outside Bandar Abbas is of strategic importance for Iran and is situated on the northern entrance to the Straits of Hormuz leading into the Persian Gulf. Some 20% of the world's oil moves through the Straits and the port that services 70% of Iranian goods is of immense importance to the Iranian economy. It also contains oil and petrochemical facilities.
In 2020, the port came under a cyber attack attributed at the time to Israel, according to reporting in the Washington Post.