A huge explosion this morning killed more than 500 people and destroyed large parts of the Iranian port of Shahid Rajaee southwest of Bandar Abbas along the shores of the Persian Gulf.
A video posted on YouTube shows a close up moment of the explosion as a tanker truck passes a distant fire in the the port:
Another video posted on X by a worker inspecting buildings in the aftermath shows the immense damage to buildings as black smoke rises from the Shahid Rajaee port as a helicopter drops water onto a fire still burning there.
The port is located in southwestern Iran and is one of Iran’s main oil facilities. So far 516 people have been reported dead, a spokesman for the country’s emergency services said.
The explosion occurred as Iran began a third round of nuclear talks with the United States in Oman. However, so far there was no indication of any link between the two events.
An Iranian news service reported that a fuel tank had “exploded for an unknown reason,” and port operations had been suspended. State broadcaster IRIB said the explosion took place in the chemical and sulfur area of the port.
Hossein Zafari, a spokesperson for Iran’s crisis management organization, 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.”
