Iran: Explosion at power plant in central Isfahan province, no casualties reported

A massive explosion broke out at a power plant in Iran’s central Isfahan province on July 19, but no casualties were reported, according to an Iranian local media outlet. While there has been several explosions and fires around Iranian military, nuclear and industrial facilities since late June, the managing director of the power company reportedly said that Sunday’s blast was caused by a worn-out transformer at the plant. 

According to reports, the explosion led to an interruption of power for two hours. The blaze erupted as a result of an explosion of 23kV power transformer at a substation of the power plant in Islamabad. 

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Suspicions of sabotage 

Sunday’s incident is the latest in a series of mysterious blazes that have rocked Iran in recent weeks. The blast comes after several vessels reportedly caught fire on July 15 at the Iranian port of Bushehr on the Persian Gulf. Back in late June, two explosions also rocked Tehran. One explosion was reported near a military site and the other in a health centre. The latter blast also reportedly killed 19 people. 

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Another fire also reportedly broke out at the underground Natanz nuclear facility on July 2. After the incident at the Natanz nuclear facility, Iranian officials tried to downplay the effects and the explosion and stated that while they knew the cause of the explosion, they would not be sharing it with the public for security reasons. Reports have indicated that Iran’s state media has just stopped short of accusing Israel and the United States of a possible attack and added that it was time for Iran to rethink its foreign policy in the face of hostile threats from foreign powers.

The series of incidents have triggered suspicions of sabotage. Some Iranian officials reportedly said that the explosions could have been a cyberattack. One official also warned that Tehran would retaliate against any country carrying out such attacks. While the Iranian media outlet said that the series of attacks might be a possibility of sabotage by enemies, Israel’s defence minister reportedly said that his country was not ‘necessarily’ behind every mysterious incident in Iran. 

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