A massive blaze has broken out at an Iranian port, ripping through at least seven ships – the latest in a string of mysterious fires and explosions to hit the country.
Dramatic video purporting to show the blaze shows thick black smoke billowing from the scene at the port of Bushehr – as men desperately try to put out the flames.
The incident is unfolding just 12 miles away from Iran’s only nuclear power station and comes just days after a mysterious blast caused significant damage at a uranium facility in another part of the country.
Bushehr nuclear power plant was developed by Russia and Iran as part of a joint nuclear cooperation agreement.
It is not clear how the ships caught ablaze and no injuries have been reported.
Some reports have suggested that the fire broke out at a shipyard where fibreglass hulls for boats are built.
The fire comes amid a string of explosions across Iran – many of which authorities have brushed off as unfortunate accidents.
Experts fear Israel and the US could be behind the attacks and have questioned whether Iranian cyber security breaches could be to blame.
Policy Director of United Against Nuclear Iran Jason Brodsky told Fox News: ‘There is evidence of a concerted campaign underway to thwart Iran’s nuclear program.’
Cyber-intelligence expert and CEO of TrustedSec David Kennedy added: ‘Although many are asking the question, was this a cyber-attack or physical sabotage, the answer could be “both.”
‘The most likely suspects are the US and Israel working in tandem.’
It follows an embarrassing blunder last week in which Iranian media quoted a former mayor who dismissed a blast on Friday as ‘explosion at a factory making gas cylinders’.
But other media outlets quickly discovered the mayor in question had been dead for over a year.
Other reports said the explosion actually occurred at a missile and chemical warehouse and the blast injured 11.
The series of bizarre explosions started on June 26, when a factory making cruise missiles and another producing ammunition were hit in Khojir, Tehran, local media reported.
This was then followed by a gas leak at a medical clinic which caused an explosion killing 19 and injuring six on June 30.
Tehran Deputy Governor Hamid Reza Goudarzi told state television that blast was triggered by a gas leak. The fire department said gas canisters caught fire in the clinic’s basement.
Then on July 2, a fire and an explosion occurred at Natanz uranium enrichment plant which develops centrifuges. These are needed to make uranium – and other nuclear weapons.
Power outages then occurred when a fire broke out at a power plant in Shiraz
A fire then broke out on July 4 at the Zergan power plant in the city of Ahvaz in southwestern Iran.
The blaze caused a transformer in the station to explode and ignite the plant – which in turn caused partial electricity outages before it was put out.
Another fire was reported on Sunday at a facility belonging to the Shahid Tondgooyan Petrochemical Company in southwest Iran – but was quickly contained.
The fire was caused by an oil leak but did not lead to any casualties, Mohsen Beyranvand, the governor of Mahshahr county said, according to IRNA.
This fire occurred shortly after the explosion in the basement of a home in Tehran, injuring one person.
They implied that the injured person worked with the cylinders and this caused the blast to occur.
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