Xi sends condolences to Iran over port blast

Chinese President Xi Jinping on Tuesday extended condolences to Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian over the severe explosion at a port in the country.

Xi said he was deeply grieved to learn that a massive explosion at Shahid Rajaee Port in the southern Iranian city of Bandar Abbas caused heavy casualties.

On behalf of the Chinese government and people, Xi mourned the victims and offered sincere sympathies to the injured and the bereaved families.

The death toll from the explosion rose to at least 70, with over 1,200 injured, Iranian state media said on Monday, as firefighters battled a blaze that Iranian officials said was brought under control 48 hours after the start of the fire. A cleanup is underway.

The fire has been completely contained, while rescue and relief operations were still ongoing, Mohammad Ashouri Taziani, governor of the Hormozgan Province, told the semiofficial Mehr news agency.

The port lies in the major coastal city of Bandar Abbas in Hormozgan Province on the Strait of Hormuz, a waterway through which one-fifth of global oil output passes.

Pezeshkian on Sunday visited those injured in the explosion.

"We have to find out why it happened," the president said during a meeting with officials aired by state television.

On Monday, Iran's Interior Minister Eskandar Momeni identified "certain negligence" as one of the reasons behind the deadly explosion at the port, the country's largest maritime hub.

He made the remarks in an interview with state-run IRIB TV, elaborating on the ongoing investigations to determine the cause of the incident.

Momeni noted that a failure to observe safety regulations and passive defense measures properly contributed to the disaster, urging the relevant authorities and investigative committee to accelerate efforts to determine the full cause accurately.

Following the deadly blast, Hossein Sajedinia, head of Iran's National Disaster Management Organization, told IRIB on Sunday that some of the containers at the port contained flammable materials such as pitch, and some others carried chemicals.

Despite the incident, the port's wharves have resumed operations and cargo handling, according to the official news agency IRNA.

Agencies - Xinhua