Devastation at the Shahid Rajaee port dock southwest of Bandar Abbas<\/p>\n
Iranian authorities have not said what caused the massive explosion at the port of Bandar Abbas<\/a> on Saturday, killing at least 40 people, amid unconfirmed reports of the possible presence of a chemical used to make missile propellant.<\/p>\n Eyewitness accounts and video indicate chemicals in an area of shipping containers caught fire, setting off a much larger explosion<\/a>. The death toll has spiked sharply, with 1,000 others reported injured, according to the Associated Press, citing Iranian state TV. Of those wounded, 190 remain in hospital, said Pir Hossein Kolivand, head of Iran\u2019s Red Crescent society.<\/p>\n One surveillance video distributed by the Fars news agency shows a small fire beginning among containers, with a number of workers moving away from the scene, before a huge explosion ends the video feed. Emergency workers hoped the blaze would be fully extinguished by Sunday afternoon, after aircraft doused the site with seawater. About 80% of the fires had been contained, Iranian state media reported earlier.<\/p>\n CNN has previously reported that hundreds of tons of a critical chemical for fueling Iran\u2019s ballistic missile program arrived at the port in February. Another shipment is reported to have arrived in March.<\/p>\n The state-run Islamic Republic News Agency quoted an official as saying the explosion was likely set off by containers of chemicals, but did not identify the chemicals. The agency said late Saturday that the Customs Administration of Iran blamed a \u201cstockpile of hazardous goods and chemical materials stored in the port area\u201d for the blast.<\/p>\n Iran\u2019s national oil company said the explosion at the port was \u201cnot related to refineries, fuel tanks, or oil pipelines\u201d in the area.<\/p>\n Iranian officials have denied that any military material was held at the port. The spokesman for the national security and foreign policy committee of the Iranian parliament, Ebrahim Rezaei, said in a post on X<\/a> Sunday that according to initial reports the explosion had \u201cnothing to do with Iran\u2019s defense sector.\u201d<\/p>\n Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian arrived in Bandar Abbas on Sunday afternoon to investigate the situation and oversee relief efforts, according to state media. The president also met with those injured in yesterday\u2019s blast.<\/p>\n \u201cWe have to find out why it happened,\u201d Pezeshkian said at a meeting with officials aired by Iranian state television.<\/p>\n The region\u2019s governor, Mohammad Ashouri, declared three days of mourning.<\/p>\n The blast comes at a time of high tensions in the Middle East and ongoing talks between Iran and the United States over Tehran\u2019s nuclear programme, but no senior figure in Iran has suggested the blast was an attack.<\/p>\n Videos and images from the scene, some of which have been geolocated by CNN, show orange-brown smoke rising from part of the port where containers were stacked. Such a color would suggest a chemical such as sodium or ammonia was involved.<\/p>\n The New York Times<\/a> reported Sunday that a person \u201cwith ties to Iran\u2019s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said that what exploded was sodium perchlorate, a major ingredient in solid fuel for missiles. The person spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss security matters.\u201d<\/p>\n CNN cannot confirm what was being stored in the area at the time of the explosion and it is unclear why such chemicals would be kept at port for so long.<\/p>\n Other experts suggested more mundane chemicals might explain the huge blast.<\/p>\n \u201cThis bears the hallmarks of an ammonium nitrate explosion. Ammonium nitrate is a commodity chemical that is widely used as a fertilizer and as an industrial explosive, but it is well known that poor storage can significantly raise the risk of an explosion in the event of a fire.\u201d said Andrea Sella, a professor of chemistry at University College London.<\/p>\n \u201cMaterial ignites and burns fiercely less than a minute later followed seconds later by the devastating detonation. It is the supersonic pressure wave from that that would have shattered windows.\u201d<\/p>\nReports of chemical fuel \u2018for missiles\u2019<\/strong><\/h2>\n