Sawt Falasteen - Eighteen killed, fires still burning in huge Iran port blast

The blast occurred Saturday at Shahid Rajaee Port in southern Iran, near the Strait of Hormuz through which a fifth of world oil output passes.

The port's customs office said in a statement carried by state television that the explosion probably resulted from a fire that broke out at the hazardous and chemical materials storage depot.

The New York Times quoted a person with ties to Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss security matters, saying that what exploded was sodium perchlorate -- a major ingredient in solid fuel for missiles.

Iranian state TV on Sunday gave an updated toll of 18 people killed and 800 injured, with thick black smoke still visible in live footage from the scene.

Three Chinese nationals were "lightly injured", China's state broadcaster CCTV reported, citing its Bandar Abbas consulate.

The explosion was so powerful that it was felt and heard about 50 kilometres (30 miles) away, Fars news agency reported.

- Blood-stained cars -

Images from IRNA showed rescuers and survivors walking along a wide boulevard carpeted with debris after the blast at Shahid Rajaee, more than 1,000 kilometres south of Tehran.

Flames engulfed a truck trailer and blood stained the side of a crushed car, while a helicopter dropped water on massive black smoke clouds billowing from behind stacked shipping containers.

Citing local emergency services, state TV reported that "hundreds have been transferred to nearby medical centres", while the provincial blood transfusion centre issued a call for donations.

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".

Speaking later at the scene, Interior Minister Eskandar Momeni told state TV: "All resources from other cities and Tehran have been dispatched."

With choking smoke and air pollution spreading throughout the area, all schools and offices in Bandar Abbas, the nearby capital of Hormozgan province, have been ordered closed on Sunday to allow authorities to focus on the emergency effort, state TV said.

- Containers exploded -

Mehrdad Hassanzadeh, head of the 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".

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

Saturday is the start of the working week in Iran, meaning the port would have been busy with employees.

The United Arab Emirates expressed "solidarity with Iran" over the explosion and Saudi Arabia sent condolences.

The state-owned National Iranian Oil Products Distribution Company said in a statement carried by local media that the explosion "has no connection" to its facilities and that "Bandar Abbas oil facilities are currently operating without interruption".

The 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 at Tabas in the east of the country.

Saturday's explosion also came as Iranian and US delegations met in Oman for high-level talks on Tehran's nuclear programme, with both sides reporting progress.

C.AbuSway--SF-PST