Huge explosion in Iranian port kills at least five and injures more than 500

Official suggests blast in southern port of Shahid Rajaee in Bandar Abbas due to explosion of chemicals in containers

An immense blast in Iran's southern port of Shahid Rajaee has killed at least five people and injured more than 700, according to state media, with an official suggesting the fire was caused by the explosion of chemical containers.

A spokesperson for Iran's crisis management body pointed to poor storage conditions of chemicals as the trigger for the port explosion. The cause of the explosions was the chemicals inside the containers," Hossein Zafari, a crisis management spokesperson, told Iran's ILNA news agency. He added that the port administration had previously been warned about the danger these chemicals posed.