American Marconi Wireless News - Major blast at Iran port kills 5, injures hundreds

Although the cause of the blast was not immediately clear, the port's customs office said in a statement carried by state TV that it probably resulted from a fire that broke out at the hazmat and chemical materials storage depot.

State media reported a "massive explosion" at Shahid Rajaee, the country's largest commercial port, located in Hormozgan province on the southern coast.

The fires triggered by the explosion were still burning more than seven hours after the blast, which Mehr news agency said happened just before noon (0830 GMT) local time.

A state TV reporter said strong winds were making it hard to extinguish the flames.

Images from the official IRNA news agency showed rescuers and survivors walking along a wide boulevard carpeted with debris after the blast.

Flames engulfed a truck trailer and blood stained the side of a crushed car, while a helicopter dropped water on massive black smoke clouds billowing from behind stacked shipping containers.

Citing local emergency services, state TV reported that "hundreds have been transferred to nearby medical centres", while the provincial blood transfusion centre issued a call for donations.

State TV later cited an official from Hormozgan saying the toll had reached five killed.

In a video posted to social media, which AFP was not able to verify, a man filming the disaster says "my truck was completely destroyed and my friend died", while a dead body can be seen on the ground.

Saturday is the start of the working week in Iran, meaning the port would have been busy with workers.

Three Chinese nationals were "lightly injured", China's state broadcaster CCTV reported, citing its Bandar Abbas consulate.

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian expressed sympathy for the victims of the deadly blast, adding he had "issued an order to investigate the situation and the causes".

He said Interior Minister Eskandar Momeni would go to the area to look into the incident.

Shahid Rajaee, more than 1,000 kilometres (620 miles) south of Tehran, is Iran's most advanced container port, according to IRNA.

It is 23 kilometres west of Bandar Abbas, the Hormozgan provincial capital, and near the Strait of Hormuz, through which a fifth of world oil output passes.

- Containers exploded -

Mehrdad Hassanzadeh, head of the province's crisis management authority, told state TV that "the cause of this incident was the explosion of several containers stored in the Shahid Rajaee Port wharf area".

The explosion was so powerful that it was felt and heard about 50 kilometres away, Fars news agency reported.

"The shockwave was so strong that most of the port buildings were severely damaged," Tasnim news agency reported.

A spokesman for the foreign ministry of the United Arab Emirates expressed the country's "solidarity with Iran" over the explosion.

The state-owned National Iranian Oil Products Distribution Company said in a statement carried by local media that "the explosion at Shahid Rajaee Port has no connection to refineries, fuel tanks, distribution complexes or oil pipelines".

It added that "Bandar Abbas oil facilities are currently operating without interruption".

The rare explosion comes several months after one of Iran's deadliest work accidents in years.

The coal mine blast in September, caused by a gas leak, killed more than 50 people at Tabas in the east of the country.

Saturday's explosion also came as Iranian and US delegations met in Oman for high-level talks on Tehran's nuclear programme. Both sides reported progress.

A.Mahlangu--AMWN