The death toll from the powerful explosion that rocked Iran’s biggest port of Bandar Abbas has risen to at least 40, with over 1,000 injured, state media reported on Sunday.
Though authorities are still working to determine the cause of the blast, an Iranian parliament member claimed that Israel was responsible, saying that explosive devices were planted in the shipping containers that caused it.
“Israel was involved in the explosion,” MP Mohammad Siraj told the Rokna news agency on Sunday. “It was not accidental. Clear evidence points to Israeli involvement.”
“There were explosives planted in the container, either in their country of origin or along the transportation route,” Siraj claimed. “We do not rule out the involvement of internal factors in planting the explosives in the containers. The explosion occurred at four different locations.”
Siraj did nor provide evidence to back up his claim, and an Israeli official was quoted by Hebrew media Saturday as saying Israel had no part in the blast at the port.
Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian visited injured and circled the site in his airplane on Sunday.
This handout picture provided by the media office of the Iranian presidency shows the Islamic Republic’s President Masoud Pezeshkian speaking with a man injured in an explosion that took place a day earlier at the Shahid Rajaee port dock southwest of Bandar Abbas in the Iranian province of Hormozgan on April 27, 2025. (Iranian Presidency / AFP)
“We have to find out why it happened,” Pezeshkian said during a meeting with officials aired by Iranian state television.
Provincial Governor Mohammad Ashouri on Sunday updated the death toll in the blast to 40, 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.
Saturday’s blast took place in the Shahid Rajaee section of the port, Iran’s biggest container hub, shattering windows for several kilometers around, tearing metal strips off shipping containers and badly damaging goods inside, state media said.
A handout picture provided by the Iranian Red Crescent (RCS) on April 27, 2025, shows rescuers working at the scene of an explosion that took place a day earlier at the Shahid Rajaee port dock southwest of Bandar Abbas in the Iranian province of Hormozgan. (Iranian Red Crescent / AFP)
Fire crews had still not fully extinguished the fire, which continued to smolder as of Sunday afternoon, and rescue teams were still working to retrieve bodies from the wreckage.
Authorities described the fire as being under control, saying emergency workers hoped that it would be fully extinguished later in the day. Overnight, helicopters and heavy cargo aircraft flew repeated sorties over the burning port, dumping seawater on the site.
The port’s customs office said in a statement carried by state television on Saturday that the explosion probably resulted from a fire that broke out at the hazardous and chemical materials storage depot. A regional emergency official said several containers had exploded.
Insane view of the first moments when a fire started at Shaheed Rajaee port near Bandar Abbas in southern Iran today. The fire produced a massive explosion that reportedly killed at least five people and injured 700. pic.twitter.com/tdKyVhukAj
— Joe Truzman (@JoeTruzman) April 26, 2025
The New York Times quoted an individual with ties to Iran’s IRGC, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss security matters, who said that sodium perchlorate had exploded. The compound is a major ingredient in solid fuel for missiles.
The port had taken in a shipment of the chemical in March, the private security firm Ambrey said a day earlier. The fuel was part of a shipment from China by two vessels to Iran, first reported in January by the Financial Times.
Iran’s Defense Ministry denied the reports that the blast may have been caused by the mishandling of solid fuel used for missiles, with a spokesman telling state TV that the reports were “aligned with enemy psyops,” and that the blast-hit area did not contain any military cargo.
Men ride a motorcycle amid the devastation on a boulevard following an explosion at the Shahid Rajaee port dock southwest of Bandar Abbas in the Iranian province of Hormozgan on April 26, 2025. (MOHAMMAD RASOLE MORADI / IRNA / AFP)
In a first reaction on Sunday, spokesman Gen. Reza Talaeinik denied that missile fuel had been imported through the port.
“No sort of imported and exporting consignment for fuel or military application was (or) is in the site of the port,” he told state television by telephone.
He called foreign reports on the missile fuel baseless — but offered no explanation for what material detonated with such incredible force at the site. Talaeinik promised authorities would offer more information later.
Social media footage of the explosion on Saturday at Shahid Rajaei saw reddish-hued smoke rising from the fire just before the detonation. That suggested a chemical compound being involved in the blast, as in the Beirut explosion.
This handout picture provided by the media office of the Iranian presidency shows heavy smoke billowing at the site of an explosion that took place a day earlier at the Shahid Rajaee port dock southwest of Bandar Abbas in the Iranian province of Hormozgan on April 27, 2025. (Iranian Presidency / AFP)
It was unclear why Iran would not have moved the chemicals from the port, particularly after the Beirut port blast in 2020. That explosion, caused by the ignition of hundreds of tons of highly explosive ammonium nitrate, killed more than 200 people and injured more than 6,000 others.
Israel has targeted missile sites where Iran uses industrial mixers to create solid fuel, including during its response to a massive Iranian missile barrage launched at Israel last October.
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