The death toll from a massive explosion at an Iranian port climbed to 40 on Sunday, while the cause of the explosion remained shrouded in confusion.
A jarring blast rippled through the Shahid Rajaei port in southern Iran on Saturday, leaving a massive crater in the middle of the nation’s busiest port. The blast injured more than 1,000 people, started a massive fire, smashed containers throughout the port and knocked out surrounding windows.
Photos and videos from the site indicated some kind of chemical explosion occurred. However, Iranian authorities said they were still attempting to determine the cause.
“We have to find out why it happened,” President Masoud Pezeshkian said in a meeting with Iranian officials aired on state TV. Pezeshkian visited the site, about 650 miles south of Tehran, on Sunday.
The fire throughout the port was fully contained and 80% extinguished by Sunday, Iranian authorities said. Russian leader Vladimir Putin deployed emergency aircraft to help with containment.
Though the mammoth blast occurred at a strategically important port during high tensions in the Middle East, no Iranian officials suggested it may have been an act of war, terror or sabotage.
The presence of a chemical compound used in missile production, sodium perchlorate, was considered a possible cause. Iranian officials have publicly denied that any sodium perchlorate was stored at the port. However, two deliveries of the compound arrived at Shahid Rajaei earlier this year, according to private maritime security firm Ambrey.
A source with ties to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps told the New York Times it was a sodium perchlorate explosion.
However, a chemical expert told CNN the explosion was likely sparked by ammonium nitrate, the same chemical compound that created a massive blast in Beirut in 2020 that killed more than 200 people.
“This bears the hallmarks of an ammonium nitrate explosion,” University College London chemistry professor Andrea Sella told the outlet. “It is well known that poor storage can significantly raise the risk of an explosion in the event of a fire.”
With News Wire Services
