Over 560 injured in huge explosion at fuel tank in Iran's Bandar Abbas

Over 560 people were injured in a huge explosion at a port in Iran's southern province of Hormozgan on Saturday, the semi-official Mehr news agency reported. Four people died.

The blast occurred as Iran began a third round of nuclear talks with the United States in Oman. 

"The cause of this incident was the explosion of several containers stored in the Shahid Rajaee Port wharf area. We are currently evacuating and transferring the injured to medical centers," a local crisis management official told state TV.

The wounded have been transferred to nearby medical centers, said Babak Yektaparast, spokesman for Iran's Emergency Medical Services Organization.

The blast, which occurred at a gas tank in the Port of Shahid Rajaee, sent a huge column of smoke into the sky and caused extensive damage to nearby buildings and cars.

The port, covering over 4,800 hectares (operational area and hinterland), is one of the largest container terminals in the country with a loading/unloading capacity of 90 million tonnes, according to 2021 data from Mehr news agency. Over 85 percent of Iran's containers are handled in Shahid Rajaee Complex.