At least four people have been killed and 500 more injured in a massive explosion in the southern Iranian city of Bandar Abbas, state media is reporting.
The blast took place at the Shahid Rajaee port on Saturday morning, blowing out the windows of nearby office buildings and causing the roof of at least one building to collapse.
Footage showed people fleeing from the wharves at the time of the explosion and others lying wounded on the street. There are also reports of people being trapped under collapsed walls.
A fire is still raging at the site and pictures show huge clouds of black smoke billowing over the wharfs.
Workers were rushing to evacuate and transfer the injured to nearby hospitals, authorities said.
Some workers are “still trapped under collapsed roofs and we are trying to rescue them”, one official has told local media according to BBC Persian.
Footage shared online shows people bracing at the point of explosion and then fleeing the area.
According to reports, witnesses say the explosion occurred after a small fire on the wharf spread to open containers storing “flammable materials” and most likely, chemicals.
“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 also reported hearing the explosion from several kilometres away.
Shahid Rajaee is the country’s largest commercial port, located in the Hormozgan province on Iran’s southern coast.
