AFP
Firefighters were still working to extinguish the flames at the port on Monday two days after the explosion
The Iranian Home Minister has said negligence is a factor in the massive explosion and firing at the country’s largest container port, as the death toll rose to at least 70.
Escandar Momeni said the explosion at Shahid Rajae port in Bandar Abbas on Saturday injured more than 1,000 people but was caused by “differences including safety precautions and negligence violations.”
“Some of the people deemed responsible had been summoned for questioning, he added.
Customs say the imported cargo started a fire and exploded. The Ministry of Defense denied foreign reports that it was a shipment of missile fuel chemicals.
Mehrdad Hassanzadeh, Chief of Crisis Management for Hormozgan, said on Monday that firefighting operations at the port were “almost in the final stages.”
Meanwhile, Gov. Hormozgan Mohamad Ashuli Taziani said clear-up work at the port could last several more days, and it could take a week or two for the situation to return to normal.
He estimated that 1,500 hectares (3,700 acres) – almost two-thirds of the site were affected by the explosion.
Moment driver sees tearing a massive explosion through Iranian port
Customs said the cargo that caused the fire and exploded was not registered prior to the incident and was not formally declared prior to the incident, according to ISNA news agency.
On Sunday, Sina Marine and Port Services Development Company, CEO of the company that operated the affected area, condemned “repeated catastrophic errors involving false declarations of dangerous goods.”
Iran’s Ministry of Defense denied reports that the explosion was caused by improper handling of the shipment of sodium perchlorate, a solid fuel used in ballistic missiles.
Spokesman General Brigg Reza Talay Nick on Sunday accused foreign media of spreading “fake news” that “there was “the import or export of fuel or cargo for military use near the incident and not exported.”
Private maritime risk consultant Ambrey Intelligence told The Associated Press that the port received sodium perchlorate shipments last month and that the explosion was “reported to be the result of inappropriate handling.”
The New York Times also cited an unknown person with a connection to Iranian revolutionary security guards who say that sodium perchlorate exploded.
