The number of dead in the massive explosion and fire that rocked Shahid Rajaee port near Bandar Abbas in southern Iran over the weekend has risen to at least 40, according to the latest figures released by Iranian authorities.
The blast, which took place on Saturday morning, damaged multiple buildings in the area and caused additional fires, with more than 1,000 people injured.
Aerial footage showed at least three areas ablaze, with schools and offices in the area ordered to remain closed on Sunday as rescue teams worked to contain the fire rising from the area of the explosion and attend to the injured.
Iranian authorities have yet to determine the exact cause of the blast, however, Hossein Zafari, a spokesperson for Iran’s crisis management organisation, appeared to blame the incident on poor storage of chemicals in containers at Shahid Rajaee.
“The cause of the explosion was the chemicals inside the containers,” he told Iran’s ILNA news agency.
British maritime security consultants Ambrey said it believed the affected containers had contained solid fuel destined for ballistic missiles.
“The fire was the result of improper handling of a shipment of solid fuel intended for use in Iranian ballistic missiles”, Ambrey said, adding that it was aware that an Iran-flagged ship “discharged a shipment of sodium perchlorate rocket fuel at the port in March 2025”.
Zafari added that, the director general of crisis management had previously issued warnings to the port regarding the safe storage of chemicals during previous visits.
Shahid Rajaee is Iran’s top container hub, handling most of the country’s boxed goods. The terminal on the Strait of Hormuz also suffered a major cyberattack incident in May 2020, for which Iran blamed Israel.
Oil facilities were not affected by the blast, Iranian authorities said. No damage to ships or casualties among crews had been confirmed.