At least eight people were killed and 750 injured after several containers exploded at a key Iranian port on Saturday, causing a massive fire. Videos showed thick smoke billowing from the port area.
"The explosion occurred in a part of the Shahid Rajaee port dock, and we are extinguishing the fire," state TV quoted Esmaeil Malekizadeh, a regional port official, as saying.
Shahid Rajaee, located 1000 kilometres south of the capital Tehran, is the most advanced container port in Iran, and 23 kilometres west of Bandar Abbas, the Hormozgan provincial capital, and north of the Strait of Hormuz through which a fifth of world oil output passes.
"Four rapid response teams were dispatched to the scene after the explosion," Head of the Hormozgan Red Crescent Society, Mokhtar Salahshour, told state TV.
Mehrdad Hassanzadeh, head of the province's crisis management authority has confirmed to state tv that the cause of the incident was the explosion of several containers.
"We are currently evacuating and transporting the injured to nearby medical centres," he added.
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