The number of people injured in the powerful blast that erupted at a key port in southern Iran has risen to more than 400, state media reported.

State television, citing emergency services, reported that "406 people were injured and hundreds were transferred to nearby medical centres" in the southern province of Hormozgan, where the port of Shahid Rajai is located. 

"The explosion took place in a part of the Shahid Rajai port dock and we are currently extinguishing the fire," state television quoted Esmail Malekizadeh, a regional port official, as saying.  

Mehrdad Hasanzadeh, head of Hormozgan province's crisis management authority, told state television that "the cause of this incident was the explosion of several containers stored in the Shahid Rajai port area."

"We are currently evacuating and transporting the injured to nearby medical centres," he said.

The explosion was so powerful that it was felt and heard some 50 km away, Fars news agency reported, with residents claiming to have felt the ground shaking even at a distance from the port. | BGNES