Iran blames ‘negligence’ for port blast as death toll rises to 70

Iran’s Interior Secretary said that as the deaths rose to at least 70, the largest container port in the country was the factor of a large explosion and fire.

ESKANDAR MOMENI said on Saturday that it was caused by more than 1,000 injuries of Saturdays in Shahid Rajaee Port in Bandar Abbas.

“Some individuals were considered responsible,” he added.

Customs authorities said import cargo was fired and exploded. The Ministry of Defense refused to report a foreign report of missile fuel chemicals.

Mehrdad Hassanzadeh Hormozgan Province, head of crisis management, said on Monday that fire -fighting efforts at the port are in the last stage.

Meanwhile, Mohammad Ashouri Taziani said that the liquidation work in the port can last for several days and it can take one or two weeks for the situation to return to normal.

He estimated that 1,500 hectares (3,700 acres), which are nearly two -thirds of the site, are seriously affected by the explosion.

According to the ISNA News Agency, customs caused a fire and the explosion was not registered or officially declared before the incident.

Sunday, CEO of the company, which operates the Sina Marine and Port Services Development Company, an affected area, has accused the “repetitive and deadly error related to the false declaration of dangerous products.”

Iran’s Pentagon reported that the explosion occurred due to the inappropriate handling of sodium sodium sodium hydrochloride, which is a solid fuel used in ballistic missiles.

Briggen Reza Talai-Nik spokesman said on Sunday that “it was not fuel shipping or import or export of cargo for military purposes near this case.”

Ambrey Intelligence, a private maritime risk consulting, said that the port was shipped last month’s port of sodium hydrochloride, and the explosion was “the result of inappropriate handling.”

The New York Times also cited an unnamed person with a relationship with Iran’s revolutionary guards, saying that sodium hydrochloride exploded.