An explosion ripped through an apartment building in the Iranian port city of Bandar Abbas on Saturday, killing a four-year-old girl and injuring at least 14 other people. Local media footage reportedly showed a security forces member being carried out by rescuers after the blast, which shattered windows and left debris strewn across the street below.
The incident occurred just one day before Iran’s planned naval drill in the strategically vital Strait of Hormuz, through which about a fifth of the world’s traded oil passes. The United States military had previously warned Iran against threatening its warships or commercial traffic in the strait.
State television cited a local fire official who attributed the explosion to a gas leak at the eight-storey building. The local newspaper Sobh-e Sahel broadcast footage of its correspondent reporting from outside the damaged building, including a man in a green security force uniform being transported on a stretcher with a neck brace, apparently in pain.
Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard did not discuss the blast, other than to deny that a Guard navy commander had been hurt in the explosion. The local newspaper did not acknowledge the security force member being carried out elsewhere in its reporting.
In a separate incident on Saturday, another blast blamed on a gas explosion in the southwestern city of Ahvaz killed five people, state media reported. The explosions come amid heightened tensions after US President Donald Trump threatened a military strike over the killing of protesters or possible mass executions following a crackdown on demonstrations.
Ali Larijani, a top security official in Iran, wrote on X late on Saturday that “structural arrangements for negotiations are progressing”, though there is no public sign of any talks with the United States, which Iran’s supreme leader has repeatedly ruled out.
