At least 500 people have been injured following a massive explosion Saturday morning at the Shahid Rajaei port district in Bandar Abbas, a major city in southern Iran, according to state media reports.
The blast shattered windows in nearby office buildings and caused the roof of at least one building to collapse.
While no fatalities have been officially reported, footage showed people lying wounded in the streets, with reports of individuals trapped under debris. A major fire continues to rage at the site, sending huge, billowing black clouds over the wharfs.
Authorities said workers rushed to evacuate the area and transfer the injured to nearby hospitals. "Some workers are still trapped under collapsed roofs and we are trying to rescue them," one official told local media, according to BBC Persian.
Footage shared online captured the moment of the explosion, showing people bracing themselves before fleeing the wharf area. Witnesses reported that a small fire on the wharf spread to open containers storing flammable materials, likely chemicals, triggering the explosion.
"The fire spread quickly and caused an explosion," one witness told local media. "The source of this incident was the explosion of several containers stored in the Shahid Rajaee Port wharf area," a crisis management official said, according to BBC Persian.
Residents reported hearing the explosion from several kilometers away. Iranian state television said preliminary findings pointed to negligence in the storage of flammable materials. Meanwhile, the Tehran Times reported that the explosion of several containers was identified as the initial cause of the blast.
Mehrdad Hassanzadeh, director of Hormozgan province's crisis management organization, told state television that the injured were transferred to medical facilities. He added that safety officials had previously visited the site and issued safety warnings.
In a statement following the explosion, the National Iranian Oil Products Refining and Distribution Company confirmed that oil facilities in the area were unaffected. "The explosion and fire in Shahid Rajaei Port have no connection to refineries, fuel tanks, distribution complexes and oil pipelines related to this company," the company said, according to Al Jazeera.
Esmaeil Malekizadeh, a Hormozgan Ports and Maritime Administration official, said the explosion occurred near the Shahid Rajaei port dock. Social media videos showed a massive plume of black smoke and a fireball rising from the scene, with significant damage to buildings and vehicles. Several people were seen aiding the injured and assessing the damage.
Shahid Rajaei Port primarily handles container traffic but also includes oil tanks and petrochemical facilities. The port was previously targeted in May 2020, when Israel was accused of launching a cyberattack that disrupted operations for days.
The explosion comes at a sensitive time as Iranian officials continue negotiations with the United States over a potential new nuclear deal.
