Rescue teams and firefighters were on site to provide assistance, the public broadcaster added.
An explosion rocked a building this Saturday (31) in the Iranian city of Bandar Abbas, on the Gulf coast, state media reported, without determining, so far, the origin of the detonation. State television reported that the explosion occurred in an eight-story building and destroyed two floors, as well as “several vehicles and stores.”
As Rescue teams and firefighters were on site to provide assistance, the public broadcaster added.. The explosion comes at a time of great tension for Iran, after the United States government sent a dozen warships to the Middle East and following threats from President Donald Trump.
The official IRNA news agency quoted Hormozgan province’s director-general of crisis management, Mehrdad Hassanzadeh, as saying the cause of the explosion was under investigation. “Those injured in the incident are being taken to hospital by emergency teams,” he added, without reporting any fatalities.
Images shown on state television showed the building’s facade destroyed, with rubble scattered around it. Other Iranian media published similar information, also without detailing the cause of the explosion.
Bandar Abbas is located on the Gulf coast, close to the Strait of Hormuz, a very sensitive point where liquefied gas and oil from the Gulf transit. After rumors spread online, the Revolutionary Guard, the Islamic Republic’s elite army, denied that its buildings in Hormozgan province were attacked.
In another incident, a gas leak caused an explosion in the city of Ahvaz, in the Khuzestan region, southwest of the country. Four people died. Rescue teams began removing rubble to help people who were trapped under the debris, state television reported.
*With information from AFP
