The first explosion took place Friday night at a cardboard factory in Nazarabad, west of Tehran province. There were reportedly no casualties, and the cause of the fire remains unknown.
The second explosion took place on Saturday at the Montazer Qaem power plant in Karaj, near Tehran, where a 4.0-magnitude earthquake was felt at around the same time.
It is still unclear which came first – the earthquake or the explosion — although residents told Iran International they heard a blast moments before the temblor.
The third explosion came at noon Sunday at a large motorcycle factory warehouse spanning an area of some 4,000 square meters (43,000 square feet). The warehouse was badly damaged in the ensuing fire, which ignited near an Electrosteel factory. No information was available regarding casualties. The incident followed a similar explosion on Saturday in the same area, according to Israeli media.
According to a report on the ‘Israel at War‘ social media outlet, the factory belongs to the Tiz Par Toos company, owned by Ali Alipourian, and is a shell company used as cover by the Shahid Hamat Industries Group. Shahid Hamat has been sanctioned by the United Nations over production of parts for the Iranian ballistic missile program.
Within an hour, another explosion took place; this one at a petrochemical plant in the holy Iranian city of Qom. At least five people were injured in the explosion.
Multiple Iranian news outlets avoided reporting about the explosions.
On April 26, an explosion at the Shahid Rajaee Port in Bandar Abbas killed at least 70 people; 46 bodies have been identified while others are still undergoing DNA analysis, according to IRNA. More than 1,000 others were injured in the blast, which took place after a fuel tanker detonated near a chemical storage area at the port.
