The number of deaths of a massive explosion in an Iranian port went to 28 years on Sunday with more than 800 people injured, according to state media. Some people remain missing.
The explosion on Saturday evening at the largest and most important shipping port of Iran resulted in a major fire, which has spread and caused destruction in the surroundings. The Iranian Ministry of Health, citing toxic airborne pollutants, said the state of emergency in the province and asked people to stay inside.
The port, Shahid Rajaee, is strategically located in Bandar Abbas, in southern Iran, along the Hormuz Strait.
Officials said three days of public mourning in the province.
Sunday morning, most of the fire had been contained and the firefighters fought to extinguish the remaining 20%, according to the press agency of the Islamic Republic managed by the State.
Last year, the port of Shahid Rajaee managed 85% of the Iranian traffic containers, as well as a large part of its oil, according to the organization of the port and sea.
An Iranian official told state media on Saturday that the explosion was probably triggered by chemical containers and that the authorities did not suggest that the explosion was caused by sabotage or deliberate attack.
Five years ago, Israel launched a cyberattack which hampered operations at the port of Shahid Rajaee as part of its longtime ghost war with Iran. Israeli officials did not respond to a request for comments during the explosion on Saturday.
Masoud Pezeshkian, the Iranian president, said that the country’s interior minister went to the region to supervise an investigation into the cause of the explosion.
Mr. Pezeshkian also asked the Minister to accelerate the reconstruction and reopening of the port.
The state media reported that the country’s first vice-president Mohammad Reza Aref stressed the need to strengthen security protocols in all ports and industrial installations in the region to prevent similar accidents in the future.
