Iran’s Interior Minister, Eskandar Momeni has said that the massive explosion and fire at the country’s largest container port, was due to negligence
Report says the death toll has climbed to at least seventy.
Eskandar Momeni said Saturday’s blast at Shahid Rajaee port in Bandar Abbas, which also injured more than one thousand people, was caused by “shortcomings, including noncompliance with safety precautions and negligence noting that Some individuals were responsible and had been summoned for questioning.
Meanwhile Customs authorities have said imported cargo caught fire and exploded but the defence ministry has denied foreign reports that it was a shipment of a missile fuel chemical.
The crisis management director for Hormozgan province, Mehrdad Hassanzadeh, also said that the firefighting effort at the port was almost in its final stages.
He estimated that one thousand five hundred hectares – almost two-thirds of the site – were severely affected by the explosion.
The Customs Administration said the cargo which caught fire and exploded had neither been registered nor formally declared before the incident.
