Huge oil refinery fire near Iranian capital extinguished

A dark plume of smoke rises up from a main oil refinery south of Tehran, Iran (Ebrahim Noroozi/AP)

A massive fire that broke out at an oil refinery near Iran’s capital and sent a huge plume of black smoke into the sky over Tehran has been extinguished after more than 20 hours, a news agency reported.

The semi-official ISNA agency quoted the country’s deputy oil minister, Alireza Sadeghabadi, as saying the blaze was first fully contained and then finally put out.