According to the AP, the explosion threw a huge fireball into the sky. However, it is not clear what exploded in this incident and for what reason. However, the unusual reaction of the Iranian government to the incident confirms the sensitivity of an area near which, according to international inspectors, the Islamic Republic tested strong explosives to activate nuclear weapons two decades ago.
Hundreds of meters of scorched earth
State television allegedly broadcast limited footage from the site of the explosion. They showed large blackened gas tanks, but nothing else in their vicinity. A Defense Ministry spokesman said without specifying that the explosion had caused gas to leak and that no one had lost their lives. He described the place as open to the public, which raised the question of why there were soldiers and not civilian firefighters. Television did not explain the matter in its news coverage.
According to the AP, satellite images of the area about 20 kilometers east of the center of Tehran show hundreds of meters of scorched earth, which was not evident in the images taken a few weeks earlier. The building near the burned site is similar to the one captured by a state television camera.
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