Iran’s president visits injured after port explosion kills at least 40 people

Containers burn and thick black smoke rises from the scene of the massive explosion and fire in Bandar Abbas, Iran (Meysam Mirzadeh/Tasnim News/AP)

Iran’s president has visited those injured in a huge explosion that rocked one of the Islamic Republic’s main ports, a facility purportedly linked to an earlier delivery of a chemical ingredient used to make missile propellant.

The visit by President Masoud Pezeshkian came as the toll from Saturday’s blast at the Shahid Rajaei port outside of Bandar Abbas, in southern Iran’s Hormozgan province, rose to 40 killed and about 1,000 others injured.