A powerful explosion in Rajaee Port in southern Iran killed 70 people and injured more than 1000 on Saturday, April 26. A plume of yellow smoke rose from the containers, followed by a massive blast at what appeared to be a container storage near the docks. According to CCTV footage from the explosion scene, it took around a minute for the small-scale fire to engulf the entire storage unit in a blaze. The blast also shattered windows and left a trail of damaged vehicles in the immediate vicinity. The efforts to douse the flames caused by the explosion lasted a day and a half, involving numerous aerial firefighting missions using both Iranian and Russian aircrafts.
Government officials were obscure about the causes of the incident. According to early reports, the fire was sparked by “chemicals used in agriculture and medicine”. Later reports suggested that hazardous chemicals were stored in Rajaee Port as regular cargo. The New York Times reported that according to an anonymous person with ties to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, the explosion was caused by sodium perchlorate, a major substance used in solid fuel for missiles. The Financial Times reported in January that two cargo vessels set off on a voyage from China to Iran carrying more than 1000 tonnes of sodium perchlorate. According to Maritime Executive, the last shipments of sodium perchlorate sailing from China docked at Rajaee Port in March. The vessel belonged to the Islamic Republic of Iran Shipping Lines. The Maritime Executive speculated that the cargo would be unloaded and shipped to Tehran via train; however, the cargo remained in the port for another two months.
The lengthy holdups in clearance of cargos from the Port were a major topic of discussion among ranking officials during President Pezeshkian’s visit to Bandar Abbas in the aftermath of the explosion. “Do we need to store 120,000 to 140,000 containers here for 3 to 4 months? Can’t we clear them when they arrive?” He said during a press conference. From the first hours of the catastrophe, the Ministry of Interior, along with the governor’s office of Hormozgan province, declared a national emergency and commenced a crisis management committee. The Ministry of Health and the supervisor of the regional crisis management committee decreed the following day off due to the severe concentration of carbon dioxide in the air.
Rajaee Port is Iran’s largest; it is located in the city of Bandar Abbas in the Strait of Hormuz. According to ISNA, the site accounts for 53 percent of the nation’s annual trade. The Port also handled 85 percent of all shipping container traffic in 2024, according to Tehran Times. Any halt to its operation could inflict extraordinary damage to the country’s economy. However, due to its considerable distance from the docks, the explosion didn’t cause any disruption to cargo loading and unloading, and all units were still operational after the explosion.
In 2020, Israel launched a cyber attack that hindered activities at the Port for a short period of time. In the wake of the tragedy, Israeli officials denied any connection to the explosion. Ali Khazrian, a member of the National Security Commission of the Islamic Consultative Assembly, said, “The explosion in Rajaee Port was the result of weak internal security and mismanagement.”
“No interference by external factors has been presented so far,” he added.
Hormozgan province forensic department has announced that a total of 49 bodies have been identified through DNA testing and were delivered to their families for burial. Eight others reported missing by their families are yet to be found.
Written by Mohammad Amin
