The death toll from a massive explosion at an Iranian port rose to 40 on Sunday with more than 800 people injured, according to the state media. Several people remain missing.
The blast Saturday evening at Iran’s largest and most important shipping port resulted in a major fire, which spread and caused destruction in the surrounding areas. Iran’s health ministry, citing airborne toxic pollutants, declared a state of emergency in the province and instructed people to stay indoors.
The port, Shahid Rajaee, is strategically located in Bandar Abbas, in southern Iran, along the Strait of Hormuz.
Officials declared three days of public mourning in the province.
By Sunday morning most of the fire had been contained and firefighters were battling to extinguish the remaining 20 percent, according to the state-run Islamic Republic News Agency.
Last year the Shahid Rajaee port handled 85 percent of Iran’s shipping container traffic, as well as a large portion of its oil, according to the Port and Maritime Organization.
An Iranian official told state media on Saturday that the explosion was likely set off by containers of chemicals and the authorities have not suggested that the blast was caused by sabotage or a deliberate attack.
Five years ago, Israel launched a cyberattack that hampered operations at the Shahid Rajaee port as part of its long-running shadow war with Iran. Israeli officials did not respond to a request for comment on Saturday’s explosion.
Masoud Pezeshkian, the Iranian president, said the country’s interior minister was heading to the region to oversee an investigation into the cause of the explosion.
Mr. Pezeshkian also instructed the minister to speed up the reconstruction and reopening of the port.
State media reported that the country’s first vice president, Mohammad Reza Aref, has stressed the need to bolster safety protocols across all ports and industrial facilities in the area to prevent similar accidents in the future.
