Blast rips through building in Iranian port city of Bandar Abbas, state media says
By Issy Ronald, CNN
(CNN) — A blast caused by a gas leak ripped through a building in the Iranian southern port city of Bandar Abbas on Saturday, state media reported, as tensions remain high in the region due to US President Donald Trump repeatedly warning of possible military action against Iran.
Although the cause of the explosion, which killed a young girl, wasn’t immediately clear, the city’s fire chief later said that it was due to a gas leak, semi-official news agency Tasnim reported.
Iranian state-affiliated Fars News Agency was earlier forced to deny rumors it said had been circulating for hours that Brigadier General Alireza Tangsiri, commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Navy, had been assassinated.
That denial underlined the current anxieties in the region as Trump renewed his threats on Wednesday for Iran to sign what he called an “equitable” nuclear deal or face another potential US military strike.
A US official told CNN the explosion was not related to any US military action, and an Israeli official said Israel was not involved either.
Footage posted by Fars on Saturday showed that the blast had ripped through the lower four floors of a nine-story building in Bandar Abbas.
The agency said a four-year-old girl was killed in the explosion and that 14 people had been injured. Emergency services were at the scene, it added.
The city’s fire chief said on semi-official news agency Tasnim that all residents from the building had been evacuated.
This is a developing story and will be updated.
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CNN’s Haley Britzky, Tal Shalev and Eugenia Yosef contributed reporting.
