Jan 31 (Reuters) – An explosion that hit a building in the southern Iranian port city of Bandar Abbas on Saturday was caused by a gas leak, according to a preliminary assessment, the local head of the fire department said.
Iranian state media reported that at least two people have been killed and 14 injured in the blast, which comes amid heightened tensions between Tehran and Washington over Iran’s crackdown earlier this month on nationwide protests and over the country’s nuclear programme.
“This (gas leak) is the preliminary assessment. My colleagues will give more details in the next few hours,” Mohammad Amin Liaqat, the fire department chief, said in a video published by Iran’s semi-official Mehr news agency.
A video published on social media showed people standing among debris and wrecked cars in front of a damaged building following the explosion.
Reuters was able to verify the location by analysing buildings, trees, and road layout, which matched satellite and file imagery. Reuters could not independently verify the date the video was filmed.
Separately, four people were killed after another gas explosion in the city of Ahvaz near the Iraqi border, according to state-run Tehran Times. No further information was immediately available.
NERVES STRAINED AS TRUMP PILES PRESSURE ON IRAN
The explosions highlighted the jittery mood prevailing in Iran amid its clerical rulers’ standoff with the Trump administration.
U.S. President Donald Trump said on January 22 an “armada” was heading toward Iran. Multiple sources said on Friday that Trump was weighing options against Iran that include targeted strikes on security forces.
Ali Larijani, a senior Iranian security official, said on X on Saturday that work on a framework for negotiations with the United States was progressing, downplaying what he described as an “atmosphere created by artificial media warfare.”
Trump told Fox News correspondent Jacqui Heinrich that Iran was “negotiating, so we’ll see what happens,” Heinrich wrote on X.
“You know, the last time they negotiated, we had to take out their nuclear, didn’t work, you know. Then we took it out a different way, and we’ll see what happens,” Heinrich quoted Trump as saying.
Before the reports of the two blasts on Saturday, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian accused U.S., Israeli and European leaders of exploiting Iran’s economic problems, inciting unrest and providing people with the means to “tear the nation apart.”
The semi-official Tasnim news agency said social media reports alleging that a Revolutionary Guard navy commander had been targeted in the Bandar Abbas explosion were “completely false.”
Two Israeli officials told Reuters that Israel was not involved in Saturday’s blasts. The Pentagon did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Bandar Abbas, home to Iran’s most important container port, lies on the Strait of Hormuz, a vital waterway between Iran and Oman which handles about a fifth of the world’s seaborne oil.
The port suffered a major explosion last April that killed dozens and injured over 1,000 people. An investigative committee at the time blamed the blast on shortcomings in adherence to principles of civil defence and security.
Iran has been rocked by nationwide protests that erupted in December over economic hardship and have posed one of the toughest challenges to the country’s clerical rulers.
U.S.-based rights group HRANA has said at least 6,500 people were killed in the protests, including hundreds of security personnel.
(Reporting by Dubai Newsroom and Menna Alaa El-Din, Enas Alashray and Hatem Maher in Cairo; Additional reporting by Maayan Lubell in Jerusaleum, Phil Stewart in Washington and Edward Carron in London; Editing by Gareth Jones, Nia Williams and Diane Craft)
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