Source : NEW INDIAN EXPRESS NEWS
TEHRAN: Iran’s president on Sunday visited those injured in a huge explosion that rocked one of the Islamic Republic’s main ports, a facility purportedly linked to an earlier delivery of a chemical ingredient used to make missile propellant.
The visit by President Masoud Pezeshkian came as the toll from Saturday’s blast at the Shahid Rajaei port outside of Bandar Abbas in southern Iran’s Hormozgan province rose to 40 with about 1,000 others injured.
While Iran’s military sought to deny the delivery of ammonium perchlorate from China, new videos emerged showing an apocalyptic scene at the still-smoldering port. A crater that appeared meters (yards) deep sat surrounded by burning smoke so dangerous that authorities closed schools and businesses in the area.
Containers appeared smashed or thrown as if discarded toys, while the burned carcasses of trucks and cars sat around the site.
“We have to find out why it happened,” Pezeshkian said during a meeting with officials aired by Iranian state television.
Authorities described the fire as being under control, saying emergency workers hoped that it would be fully extinguished later Sunday.
Overnight, helicopters and heavy cargo aircraft flew repeated sorties over the burning port, dumping seawater on the site. Satellite pictures taken Sunday by Planet Labs PBC and analyzed by The Associated Press showed a huge plume of black smoke still over the site.
Provincial Gov. Mohammad Ashouri gave the latest death toll, Iranian state TV reported. Pir Hossein Kolivand, head of Iran’s Red Crescent society, said that only 190 of about 1,000 injured remained hospitalized on Sunday, according to a statement carried by an Iranian government website. The governor declared three days of mourning.
SOURCE :- NEW INDIAN EXPRESS
