Explosion in Tehran province kills at least one, injures several
An explosion in a battery workshop southwest of Tehran killed at least one person and damaged dozens of cars and buildings on Friday, Iranian media reported.
The explosion in Nasim Shahr county outside Tehran "completely destroyed the battery workshop, killed one and caused another [person] to lose a limb," local fire brigade chief Iraj Torkamani told the semi-official Tasnim news agency.
State TV reported that at least 10 people had been injured in the blast.
The cause of the explosion was still unclear and investigations were underway, Torkamani said.
A string of mysterious fires and explosions have taken place across Iran over the past few months, beginning in July with an explosion at the Natanz enrichment facility, causing significant damage to the nuclear site about 300km south of Tehran. Days later, a blast killed two people in an industrial zone in the capital.
Other incidents followed, with damage to an aluminum factory in the industrial city of Lamerd, a shipyard in the port city of Bushehr and a petrochemical plant in southwestern Khuzestan province.
In mid-July, an explosion hit a power plant in the central Iranian province of Isfahan. It was blamed on faulty equipment and no casualties were reported.
A Middle Eastern intelligence official with knowledge of the incident at Natanz told the New York Times that, contrary to Tehran saying it was an accident, Israel was responsible for the "powerful bomb" attack.
Israel and the US under President Donald Trump have been staunch opponents of Iran's nuclear programme. Washington pulled out of a nuclear agreement between Tehran and world powers in 2018.
Middle East Eye delivers independent and unrivalled coverage and analysis of the Middle East, North Africa and beyond. To learn more about republishing this content and the associated fees, please fill out this form. More about MEE can be found here.
