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A massive explosion and fire rocked a port Saturday in southern Iran purportedly linked to a shipment of a chemical ingredient used to make missile propellant, killing eight people and injuring around 750 others.
Helicopters dumped water from the air on the raging fire hours after the initial explosion, which happened at the Shahid Rajaei port just as Iran and the U.S. met Saturday in Oman for the third round of negotiations over Tehran’s rapidly advancing nuclear program.
Shahid Rajaei has been a target before. A 2020 cyberattack attributed to Israel targeted the port. It came after Israel said that it thwarted a cyberattack targeting its water infrastructure, which it attributed to Iran. Israeli officials didn’t respond to requests for comment regarding Saturday’s explosion.
Social media videos showed black billowing smoke after the blast. Others showed glass blown out of buildings kilometers, or miles, away from the epicenter of the explosion. State media footage showed the injured crowding into at least one hospital, with ambulances arriving as medics rushed one person by on a stretcher.
Hasanzadeh, the provincial disaster management official, earlier told state television that the blast came from containers at Shahid Rajaei port in the city, without elaborating. State TV also reported that there had been a building collapse caused by the explosion, though no further details were offered.
The Interior Ministry said that it launched an investigation into the blast. Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian also offered his condolences for those affected in the blast.
Shahid Rajaei port in Hormozgan province is about 650 miles southeast of Iran’s capital, Tehran, on the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow mouth of the Persian Gulf through which 20% of all oil traded passes.
