Deadly blast in Iran’s Bandar Abbas caused by gas leak, official says

An explosion that killed two people and damaged a residential building in the Iranian port city of Bandar Abbas was likely caused by a gas leak, according to local officials and state media.

The blast took place on Saturday amid heightened tensions between Iran and the United States and wounded at least 13 others, the officials said.

“The initial cause of the building accident in Bandar Abbas was a gas leak and build-up, leading to an explosion,” fire chief Mohammad Amin Lyaghat said in comments broadcast on state television.

“My colleagues will give more details in the next few hours,” he said.

The semiofficial Tasnim news agency reported that two people were killed in the blast, citing Mehrdad Hassanzadeh, the head of crisis management in Hormozgan province, where Bandar Abbas is located.

Another 13 people were undergoing treatment, it said.

State television said the explosion occurred at an eight-storey building, “destroying two floors, several vehicles, and shops” in the area.

Images carried by Press TV showed the building’s facade blown out, exposing parts of its interior, with debris scattered around.

After rumours circulated online about the Bandar Abbas explosion, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) denied that any of the buildings belonging to its naval forces in the province had been targeted, according to a statement carried by the Fars news agency.

Local newspaper Sobh-e Sahel showed footage of a man in a green security force uniform being carried out on a stretcher in a neck brace, and Tasnim later reported that one officer was injured after being called to the scene to help citizens.

The explosion took place amid fears of a military confrontation between Iran and the US, with President Donald Trump threatening to attack Tehran over a recent crackdown on antigovernment protests and Washington’s push to curtail the Iranian nuclear programme.

Ali Larijani, a senior Iranian security official, said on X on Saturday that work on a framework for negotiations with the US was progressing, downplaying what he described as an “atmosphere created by artificial media warfare”.

Trump, meanwhile, said he believed Iran wanted to make a deal rather than face military action.

“[Iran is] talking to us, and we’ll see if we can do something; otherwise, we’ll see what happens … we have a big fleet heading out there,” he told Fox News. “They are negotiating,” he added.

Bandar Abbas, home to Iran’s most important container port, lies on the Strait of Hormuz, a vital waterway between Iran and Oman that handles about a fifth of the world’s seaborne oil.

The port suffered a big explosion in April of last year that killed dozens of people and injured more than 1,000 others.

Separately on Saturday, four people were killed in a gas explosion in the city of Ahvaz near the Iraqi border, according to the state-run Tehran Times.

Crews had begun clearing the debris from that blast to rescue those trapped under the rubble, Press TV reported.