According to Iranian official sources, at least 40 people were killed and more than a thousand injured in the explosion last Saturday in that area near the city of Bandar Abbas.

The Shahid Rayaei terminal, on the coast of the Strait of Hormuz, is Iran’s largest and most modern port and a key point for maritime trade, accounting for about 85 percent of domestic container traffic.

Iranian government spokeswoman Fatemeh Mohajerani said that the explosion took place in a chemical warehouse, but at the moment it was difficult to establish the exact causes.

According to local media, the detonation occurred on a dock after a fuel tank caught fire.

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