5 killed as massive explosion jolts Bandar Abbas in Iran, 700 injured | WATCH

At least five people were killed and hundreds of others were injured in Bandar Abbas, a port city in Iran, which has been struck by a huge explosion and fire.

According to a report by the Associated Press, overt 700 people were injured in the incident and were being taken to hospitals.

The previous toll was four dead and more than 500 others injured.

The blast that happened at Shahi Rajaee section of the port in the city is likely to be caused by chemical explosions, the Associated Press reported.

It occurred as Iran began a third round of nuclear talks with the United States in Oman, but there was no immediate indication of a link between the two events.

Bandar Abbas blast cause

Hossein Zafari, a spokesperson for Iran's crisis management organisation, 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.

"Previously, the Director General of Crisis Management had given warnings to this port during their visits and had pointed out the possibility of danger," Zafari said.

State TV earlier reported that poor handling of flammable materials was a "contributing factor" to the explosion. A local crisis management official told state TV that the blast took place after several containers stored at the port exploded.

An Iranian government spokesperson, however, said that although chemicals had likely caused the blast, it was not yet possible to determine the exact reason.

There is no official confirmation from the authorities regarding the cause of the massive blast.

“The cause of this incident was the explosion of several containers stored in the Shahid Rajaee Port wharf area. We are currently evacuating and transferring the injured to medical centres,” a local crisis management official told state TV, as per a Reuters report.

Watch video of the blast at Bandar Abbas

Videos and photos of the explosion are going viral on social media.

"Four rapid response teams were dispatched to the scene after the explosion," Head of the Hormozgan Red Crescent Society, Mokhtar Salahshour, told state TV, AFP reported.

The videos showed a huge plume of black smoke rising up from the blast site.

Social media users reported that the blast was so powerful that it caused damage to nearby buildings.

According to the report by Reuters, National Iranian Oil Refining and Distribution Company has said in a statement that the blast in Bandar Abbas did not impact energy facilities. It said that “operations at facilities in Bandar Abbas are continuing without interruption”.

The blast shattered windows within a radius of several kilometres, Iranian media said.

Fars news said the blast was heard in Qeshm, an island 26 kilometres south of Bandar Abbas.

Iran President Masoud Pezeshkian expressed sympathy for victims affected due to the blast.

In 2020, computers at the same port were hit by a cyberattack that caused massive backups on waterways and roads leading to the facility. The Washington Post had reported that Iran's arch-foe Israel appeared to be behind that incident as retaliation for an earlier Iranian cyberattack.

PM Modi offers condolences

Prime Minister Narendra Modi over a call with Iran's President Masoud Pezeshkian offered his condolences for the loss of lives at the Bandar Abbas blast, MEA spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said.

“President Masoud Pezeshkian of Iran @drpezeshkian called PM @narendramod and strongly condemned the terror attack in the Indian Union Territory of Jammu & Kashmir and conveyed his condolences for the victims,” he wrote in a post on X.

“PM also conveyed his condolences for the loss of lives in the explosion in Bandar Abbas today and wished speedy recovery for those injured.”

About Shahid Rajaee port

Rajaee port mainly handles container traffic and also has oil tanks and other petrochemical facilities.

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.