Tehran, Apr 27 The death toll in an explosion at a port in Iran’s southern Hormozgan province has risen to 28.
The cause of the incident is yet to be ascertained, reports said.
The official IRNA news agency said the number of people injured in the blast and subsequent fire has reached 800, while six people are still missing.
The semi-official Tasnim news agency on Sunday quoted Hormozgan Governor Mohammad Ashouri Taziani as saying that footage from closed-circuit cameras installed at the scene showed a limited fire near several containers in an area of the port at 12:05 pm local time, which then spread and caused a large explosion about 90 seconds later.
He also announced three days of public mourning in the province following the deadly blast.
National Disaster Management Organization spokesman Hossein Jafari told the semi-official Fars news agency on Saturday that the explosion may have been caused by chemical substances in a container at the port.
However, Iranian government spokeswoman Fatemeh Mohajerani the same day warned against making any “hasty speculations” about the cause of the incident before the relevant authorities complete their investigation.
She said what has been confirmed so far is the presence of containers in a corner of the port, which may possibly contain chemical substances.
Dismissing foreign media rumours about the presence of military shipments at the port, Iran’s Defense Ministry spokesman Reza Talaei-Nik said that based on the investigation and available evidence, there were no imported or exported shipments of fuel or related to military use in the area of the explosion.
Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian on Saturday dispatched Interior Minister Eskandar Momeni to the site to assess the situation.
