Sawt Falasteen - Major blast at south Iran port kills 4, injures hundreds

Although the cause of the blast was not immediately clear, the customs office at the port said in a statement carried by state TV that it probably resulted from a fire that broke out at the hazmat and chemical materials storage depot.

State media reported a "massive explosion" at Shahid Rajaee, the country's largest commercial port, located in Hormozgan province on Iran's southern coast.

Footage broadcast on state TV showed thick columns of black smoke billowing from the port area, where many containers are stored, with helicopters deployed to fight the fire.

Citing local emergency services, state TV reported that at least 516 people were injured and "hundreds have been transferred to nearby medical centres".

"Unfortunately, at least four deaths have been confirmed by rescuers," the head of the Red Crescent Society's Relief and Rescue Organisation, Babak Mahmoudi, later told the broadcaster.

State TV had quoted Esmaeil Malekizadeh, a regional port official, as saying authorities were working to put out a fire at the facility.

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian expressed sympathy for the victims of the deadly blast, adding he had "issued an order to investigate the situation and the causes", dispatching Interior Minister Eskandar Momeni to the area to look into the incident.

Shahid Rajaee, more than 1,000 kilometres (620 miles) south of the capital Tehran, is the most advanced container port in Iran, according to the official IRNA news agency.

It is located 23 kilometres west of Bandar Abbas, the Hormozgan provincial capital, and north of the Strait of Hormuz, through which a fifth of world oil output passes.

- Containers exploded -

Mehrdad Hassanzadeh, head of Hormozgan province's crisis management authority, told state TV that "the cause of this incident was the explosion of several containers stored in the Shahid Rajaee Port wharf area".

"We are currently evacuating and transporting the injured to nearby medical centres," he said.

The explosion was so powerful that it could be felt and heard about 50 kilometres away, Fars news agency reported, with residents saying they could feel the ground shake even at a distance.

"The shockwave was so strong that most of the port buildings were severely damaged," Tasnim news agency reported.

The state-owned National Iranian Oil Products Distribution Company said in a statement carried by local media that "the explosion at Shahid Rajaee Port has no connection to refineries, fuel tanks, distribution complexes or oil pipelines".

It added that "Bandar Abbas oil facilities are currently operating without interruption".

The rare explosion comes several months after one of Iran's deadliest work accidents in years.

The coal mine blast in September, caused by a gas leak, killed more than 50 people in Tabas in Iran's east.

Saturday's explosion also came as delegations from Iran and the United States were meeting in Oman for high-level talks on Tehran's nuclear programme.

C.Hamad--SF-PST